wildest moments
by kissmegoodbye
Summary: Of all the people in all the world he was literally the last person she ever imagined ending up in bed with. In fact, up until 6 weeks ago she was pretty convinced that he'd never even looked a woman directly in the eyes before. [AU]
1. prologue

Eponine tapped her foot repeatedly against the bathtub.

She couldn't believe she'd been so stupid. Of all the dumb things she'd done in her life this definitely topped the list.

When she thought about it, this whole thing was really Grantaire's fault. It had been his ingenious idea to drink the whole bottle of Jägermeister between the three of them, and if he hadn't gone and passed out then she would have never ended up drunk and alone with Enjolras._  
_

_Enjolras._

Of all the people in all the world he was literally the last person she ever imagined ending up in bed with. In fact, up until 6 weeks ago she was pretty convinced that he'd never even looked a woman directly in the eyes before.

They hadn't told anyone what happened, they'd barely even spoken about it themselves. They had engaged in a highly awkward 45 second exchange the next morning, during which they agreed to blame the whole thing on their inebriated states and act like it had never happened. Not that that was a hard ask of either of them, they hadn't exactly been BFFs before.

The alarm on her phone buzzed, signaling that her last moments of obliviousness were over.

She tried to tell herself that maybe this would all just turn out to be a false alarm, maybe it was just God's way of trying to teach her a lesson. She tried to live in hope that she'd end up laughing about this someday.

But she knew this was all just wishful thinking. If Eponine was anything, she was realistic. She was nearly 2 weeks late, she'd spent the majority of the past week with her head in the toilet, and her tits were so sore she'd actually cried on the Metro 2 days earlier when a guy with a backpack had accidentally knocked into her.

She sighed as she picked up the little white stick she had so carefully balanced face down on the edge of the sink, took a deep breath and flipped it over._  
_

_Positive._


	2. chapter one

"Eponine! You home?"

Eponine scrambled out from under the duvet and grabbed her phone.

_19.05._

She'd been asleep for 5 hours. Her plan to avoid facing up the reality of her situation was already going swimmingly.

"Yeah," she mumbled, hauling herself up. "I'm in my room."

Cosette bounded in a few seconds later, looking full of the joys of spring. Most of the time Cosette was a pretty decent roommate, but she definitely wasn't the type of person you wanted around when your main focus was wallowing in your own self pity.

"Hey..." she said, far too chirpily for Eponine's liking. "What are you doing in bed?'

"Napping." Eponine replied bluntly, pushing her dark hair out of her face.

"Oh OK then." Cosette said as she sat down the bed. "So what are your plans tonight?"

"Well, now that I'm up, I'm considering ordering Chinese food. Then I'm probably going to sit on my ass and do nothing."

"You're not going to the Musain? It's not like you to stay home on a Saturday night."

"I'm not really in the mood tonight."

"Everything OK?" Cosette said, sounding genuinely concerned.

"Yeah, yeah," Eponine replied quickly, "everything is fine."

"You sure?"

"Yup. Anyway," she said, desperately trying to change the subject, "what are you up to tonight?"

"Marius's grandfather is taking us out to dinner, he managed to get a table at that new Italian place everyone is raving about."

"That's nice."

When Cosette referred to herself and Marius as 'us' it still made Eponine feel ever so slightly like she'd been punched in the stomach. It had been over a year, and she really should have gotten over it by now, but there was a tiny part of her that still wanted to cry every time she had to listen to the endless tales of all the wonderful couple activities they did and how insanely in love they were.

"Well I'd better go get ready, Marius is picking me up at 8. I'm probably going to stay at his tonight."

"OK, well have a nice time."

"Have a nice night 'Ponine, I'll see you tomorrow."

Cosette smiled as she jumped up off the bed and practically skipped out the room.

As soon as she was gone Eponine lay back down and pulled the duvet over her head. In that moment she realized how utterly ridiculous her life was; she was a little bit in love with her roommate's boyfriend and knocked up by a guy who was more than likely going to want nothing to do with her when he found out.  
She decided to skip on the Chinese, she wasn't ready to face the world outside her bed just yet.

* * *

Eponine's sleep was interrupted for the second time that night by the sound of her phone ringing. She reached over and switched on the light before she answered, glancing at the clock on her nightstand as she grabbed the phone.

_3.13._

She had a pretty good idea it would be Grantaire before she even looked at the screen. He was the only person who ever called her in the middle of the night.

"Hello," she murmured.

"'Ponine!" Grantaire's voice bellowed on the other end of the line. "I'm outside, let me in."

"Grantaire, it's like 3 in the morning."

"I know, so you gotta let me in. I could get robbed, or raped, or anything, standing out in the street at this hour."

"Oh Jesus Christ," she said, dragging herself out of bed and making her way to the door. "I'm going to buzz you up now. Please be quiet in the hall, I don't want my neighbors complaining about your singing again like last time."

"I'll be as quiet as a mouse. They won't even know I'm here. Bye!"

Eponine shoved her phone into the pocket of her pyjama pants as she buzzed Grantaire into the building. She opened the door and lent up against it. Granatire had a terrible habit of showing up at her apartment at the end of the night instead of going home. He did the same thing every time; he'd come in, she'd make him toast and he'd fall asleep on the couch. She had never really gotten to the bottom of why he did this. She always suspected it was because he didn't want to go home to an empty apartment, but she knew he'd never admit to that. He eventually came stumbling up the hall a couple of minutes later.

"'Ponine!"

"Sssh!" she said, putting her finger up to her mouth.

"Oh right," he whispered, "sorry, forgot about the quiet thing."

"You look sober," she said, as he wandered through the door and into the apartment.

"Well it was a long night. Enjolras went on another one of his 2 hour rants about how we should all take the streets about taxes, or health care, or something. I can't remember the exact cause that had upset him so much tonight, I wasn't really listening. I had to keep drinking to try and drown him out."

Eponine felt her face go red at the mention of Enjolras's name. Thankfully Grantaire was too drunk to notice. He walked right through to the living room and threw himself down on the couch.

"Anyway, I missed you tonight. Pontmercy wasn't there either, so I couldn't even make fun of him to pass the time."

"Yeah," she said, sitting on the arm of the couch, "he was at dinner with his grandfather and Cosette."

"Sounds thrilling. You got any toast?"

"I can make you some toast." Eponine replied.

"Oh that would be so good. Just butter, that's all I want, just some toast and butter." He grabbed her hand as she attempted to walk past him into the kitchen. "You're the best friend in the world 'Ponine."

"OK R," she said. "OK."


	3. chapter two

Eponine wretched over the toilet bowl for the fifth time that morning. She seriously couldn't understand how it was possible for one person to produce so much vomit. When she'd first woken up there had been a few blissful seconds when she had been convinced that the events of the previous day had all been some kind of awful dream. But then that all too familiar wave of nausea had washed over her and she'd been brought cruelly back to reality.

After she'd emptied her stomach yet again she flushed the toilet and attempted to haul herself back to her feet.

"You look how I feel."

She turned round to see a very disheveled Grantaire standing in the doorway. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and grabbed her toothbrush.

"Sorry you had to see that."

"'Ponine I've seen you throw up like a million times."

"Yeah but that was drunk throw up, it doesn't count."

"You OK?" he asked.

"Yeah, fine." Eponine lied.

"You got a stomach bug or something?"

"Yeah," she said, "something."

He stood and watched as she brushed her teeth, unsure of what the proper etiquette was in this sort of situation. When she was finally done rinsing her mouth with mouthwash for the fourth time he decided to break the silence.

"I was gonna ask if you wanted to go out for breakfast, but if you're not feeling too good we can just leave it."

"Didn't you just hear me say I was fine?" Eponine snapped.

"Listen, I think I'm just gonna go home..." he said, knowing all too well when he wasn't wanted.

"No, no, don't go home," she said, immediately feeling guilty for her slight outburst. He really wasn't the one she should be snapping it, after all none of this was his fault; he wasn't the one who had gotten her pregnant. She rubbed the back of her neck and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry R, just ignore me. You know I'm not good in the mornings."

"You sure you don't just want me to go home?"

"I'm sure. Just let me take a quick shower and then we can go OK? Maybe a change of scenery would do me good."

She faked a smile, but she was pretty sure Grantaire saw right through it.

* * *

An hour later they were sitting in the diner across the street from Eponine's apartment. It was one of those places that looked somewhat questionable from the outside, but actually served amazing food. They ordered their usuals [an omelette for her, pancake stack for him] and talked about mundane crap for the first 20 minutes before Grantaire finally broke and brought up the awkward bathroom incident.

"So do you want to talk about earlier?"

Eponine shrugged.

"I mean we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, I'm just saying the option is there," he said, taking another sip of his coffee.

If Eponine was going to let anyone in on her little secret it would be Grantaire. He'd been the first one to confront her about the whole Marius debacle, although she now realized that her unrequited feelings for him were entirely obvious to everyone but Marius himself. After that they'd sort of stumbled into becoming each other's confidant. She knew all his secrets and, up until 6 weeks ago, he knew all of hers. She had considered telling him what had happened with Enjolras before now, but she backed out every time. She wasn't embarrassed, it wasn't exactly the first one night stand she'd ever had, but she knew that Enjolras would be. After all, she had promised him that she wouldn't say anything and she knew there was no way in hell that Grantaire would be able to keep that information to himself. But now this was so much more than just one night she and Enjolras had sworn to never speak of again.

"I'm pregnant." She said quickly, pulling at the hem of her sweatshirt as she spoke instead of looking at Grantaire. It was the first time she'd actually said it out loud and she couldn't believe those words were actually coming out of her mouth.

"What?" he exclaimed.

"Grantaire..."

He cut her off before she could even get started. "Did you actually just say you were pregnant?"

Eponine looked up and nodded.

"Jesus fucking Christ Eponine."

"I know."

"Holy shit."

She started poking at her half eaten omelette.

"And you're definitely sure? You're 100% sure that you're definitely pregnant?"

"I've taken like 5 tests, they were all positive."

"Holy crap," he said, running his fingers through his hair. He sank back into his chair and paused for a few seconds before he asked the next question. "Are you going to keep it?"

She sighed. "I haven't really got that far yet."

"Um, I don't know if this is an appropriate question, but, eh, whose is it?"

That was the question she'd been dreading; she'd been waiting for it, she knew it was coming, but she still wanted the ground to open up and swallow her when it finally did.

"Oh, oh, is it that guy from the book store?" Grantaire said, rather excitedly.

Eponine suddenly regretted beginning to tell this story. "No, it's not the guy from the book store. Grantaire, I've never even seen that guy outside the freakin' book store."

"Well, I don't know everything you do in your free time."

"Well I can assure you that I haven't been doing the guy from the book store in my free time."

"Is it someone we know? Is it Courfeyrac?"

"Courfeyrac, seriously?" Eponine said, starting to feeling slightly exasperated.

"This sounds like the sort of thing Courfeyrac would be responsible for."

"No R, it's not Courfeyrac."

She began wondering if she should just make up a fictional father, at least to get Grantaire off the scent until she finally got round to telling Enjolras. But what was the point in prolonging the whole thing? He was going to find out eventually, she may as well get telling him over with now.

"It's Enjolras," she said, almost in a whisper.

"I'm sorry," Grantaire said, practically throwing his coffee cup down on the table, "did you just say Enjolras?"

She nodded.

"Enjolras got you pregnant?"

Eponine glanced around the crowded diner. She couldn't see anyone they knew, but you never knew who was hiding in the nearest darkened corner. "R, keep your voice down," she hissed.

He just continued, clearly ignoring what she had said. "Hold up, let's take this right back, you've been sleeping with Enjolras?"

"It was just the one time."

"It doesn't matter how many times you did it, you still did it. Holy shit, holy shit," he said, almost tripping over his words. How did you do it, how did you break him?"

Eponine sighed. "I don't really think that's the most important matter in hand right now R."

"I actually can't believe this, I can't believe you had sex with Enjolras and didn't tell me," he said. "I seriously think I'm going into shock."

"You're in shock? How do you think I feel?"

"Oh shit Eponine, I'm sorry, I'm being a shit friend," he said, as he suddenly reached over and grabbed her hand. "Are you OK?"

"I wouldn't say OK, no, but I got out of bed today which is a vast improvement on yesterday."

"You are going to tell Enjolras, right?"

She hesitantly attempted to reply. "I... well..."

"Eponine, you have to tell him. You shouldn't be going through this by yourself, this is as much his mess as it is yours."

"And what am I supposed to say? How do you even start that conversation? 'Hey Enjolras, remember that night we got drunk and had sex? Well turns out I'm pregnant with your kid. So anyway, how's the manifesto coming along?'"

Grantaire shrugged. "That sounds alright to me."

"Grantaire," she said sternly.

"I'm serious, you just need to get it over with and tell him."

"I know," she said, staring at the table. "I know I do. I just don't want him to hate me."

"Eponine, he won't hate you," he replied sympathetically.

"Oh really? You really think he's going to take this well?"

"I didn't say he was necessarily going to take it well, I'm just saying he won't hate you. I know Enjolras is what he is, but he is a decent human being and he will do the right thing, whatever the right thing is in this situation."

She knew that Grantaire would give Enjolras the benefit of the doubt, he always did. Despite what Grantaire said it was obvious to everyone that he secretly idolized Enjolras, secretly wished he could be more like him, and would definitely be right by his side if he ever did get round to staging that revolution he was constantly going on about. Yes, Enjolras was passionate and committed about the things he believed in, but he didn't exactly strike her as the father type and and she still wasn't entirely sure what he really thought of her. Before that night they had never really even had a proper conversation, despite the fact that they had mixed in the same friendship group for nearly 8 years. But that night he seemed like a different person to her, he seemed like someone capable of actual human emotion. Of course he had reverted back to his usual self the moment they had opened their eyes the next morning.

"It's going to be OK 'Ponine," Grantaire said, trying to sound reassuring.

She just hoped he was right.

* * *

_A/N - Thanks for reading! Sorry about the lack of Enjolras so far, I promise he'll be making his grand entrance in the next chapter!_


	4. chapter three

_A/N - Thank you for all the follows, favorites and reviews, I really do appreciate it - I hope you're enjoying reading this story as much as I'm enjoying writing it!_

* * *

When Eponine got back from breakfast she was surprised to find the apartment empty. She had fully expected Cosette to be there to regale her with fun filled tales from her dinner with Marius's grandfather. No doubt she would have to look forward to later.

As she headed for her room she began to sort through the mail she picked up on her way into the building. Most of it was for Cosette. One of the two letters addressed to Eponine looked like a bank statement. She didn't even bother opening it, she didn't need to be reminded that she didn't have any money.

As soon as she saw the prison stamp on the back of the second envelope she knew who it was from.

The first prison stamped letter had arrived, totally out of the blue, almost six months ago. She had recognized her mother's scrawl on the front of the envelope right away.

She claimed that she had changed, spouted some crap about being in therapy and how she wanted to make amends for all her years of shitty parenting. Eponine didn't buy it; she knew her mother and she knew she was incapable of change. She was a manipulative, devious woman, and Eponine had no doubt that her sudden interest in her was part of some plan to try and get early parole. She'd never written back to any of the letters, she hadn't even opened the most recent ones.

Eponine opened the bottom drawer of her dresser and shoved the latest unopened letter in with the dozen or so more that were already in there.

She did have some happy memories of her parents, from when they were all together in Montfermeil, before the Inn went bust. They were pretty good parents back then; they read her stories at bedtime, went to all her parent-teacher conferences, gave her great Christmases and actually cared about her general well-being. Everything changed after they lost the Inn. Whilst her father was drinking away the last of their money he had fallen in with a group of career criminals. Within weeks he and her mother were an integral part of their well oiled crime machine. You name it they were involved in it; counterfeit goods, stealing cars, drug dealing. As long as it was against the law they was all over it.

Their new lifestyle choices meant that Eponine ended up spending most of her childhood being dragged from pillar to post. Sometimes her parents would disappear for weeks on end. Initially they would leave her with neighbors but as time wore on they would just leave her to her own devices and she had no other choice but to learn how to look after herself.

They had both been in and out of prison over the years, but it was a home invasion gone wrong which saw their whole motley crew handed 20 year sentences.

She'd never gone to visit them in jail; instead she'd changed her last name from Thénardier to Jondrette, worked her ass off to get a scholarship to school and had done everything in her power to be nothing like them.

For a long time Eponine had really hated them, hated the fact that it was their blood that ran through her veins. But now she didn't feel anything for them, she didn't see the point in wasting her emotions on them, after all, they hadn't wasted any of theirs on her.

She kicked the dresser drawer closed and walked towards the bathroom. It was only when she passed her mirror that she realized both her hands were clasped tightly over her stomach.

* * *

Grantaire managed to not meddle for two days. Which was actually two days longer than Eponine expected, so she did have to give him some credit.

She should have known something was up when he called and asked if she wanted to come over and watch a movie. She couldn't remember the last time he had voluntarily organized any sort of activity that didn't involve drinking.

"So what did you do today?" he asked as Eponine sat on the floor scanning through his somewhat diverse DVD collection.

"I went to work, not that you would be familiar with that concept."

"Now, now Eponine, don't be hating just because I'm a kept man."

"A kept man? I don't think being entirely supported by your parents counts as being a kept man."

Grantaire's parents were art dealers who spent the majority of their time swanning around the continent. They would come back into town a couple of times of year just to make sure that Grantaire was still alive. They had apparently made a deal with him that as long as he managed to make it through university and actually graduate they would continue to support him until he 'established himself'. Four years on from graduation they were still paying his rent and sending him a weekly allowance.

"Hey, as long as Michael and Helena are happy to keep the money coming my way then I'm more than happy to keep accepting it," he said.

"You're seriously such a dickhead." Eponine replied. She'd long given up even attempting to lecture him on why he should maybe do more with his life than just live off his parents. "You wanna just watch _The Avengers_? I can't deal with looking through your DVDs anymore."

Then the door knocked.

"_The Avengers_ is fine," Grantaire said, getting up from the couch. "Let me just go see who that is."

A minute later Enjolras stormed into the living room, with a book tucked under each arm and a giant stack of papers in his hands. Enjolras never just walked anywhere, he was constantly strutting about with intent, like he was always on some very serious mission.

"I've had the most ridiculous day... oh," he said, suddenly stopping in his tracks when confronted with Eponine sprawled out on Grantaire's floor. "Hi Eponine, I didn't realize you were here."

Eponine scrambled to her feet. She'd spent the past few days trying to prepare herself to see him, and there he was, with his blonde curls and furrowed brow, standing right in front of her. She began to panic; she was so not ready to see him. She was entirely unprepared for this.

"Would you look at that Eponine," Grantaire said, walking up behind Enjolras and draping his arm round his shoulder. "Enjolras is here, what are the chances?"

"You asked me to come over Grantaire," Enjolras said, looking highly confused and vastly unimpressed.

"That's beside the point, what matters is that we're all here together." he grabbed the papers and books from Enjolras and set them down on the coffee table. "Now, I'm just going to run to the store and get some things, so why don't you two just chat amongst yourselves."

"Grantaire, what are you talking about?" Enjolras said. He looked entirely lost, Eponine almost felt sorry for him.

"I'll be gone for around 20 minutes, which is enough time to tell anyone anything, wouldn't you agree Eponine?"

Eponine glared at him. It was probably a good thing he was leaving as she may have actually killed him otherwise.

"Bye friends!" he yelled as he practically ran out the door.

And then he was gone, leaving Eponine and Enjolras standing in silence in his living room. It was one of those awful, overwhelming silences; Eponine felt like there was no way Enjolras couldn't hear her heart attempting to thump it's way out of her chest.

"So, eh, that was weird." Enjolras said, looking exceptionally uncomfortable.

"Yeah," Eponine replied, " definitely weird."

"Is he high or something?"

"Um no, at least I don't think so."

"Hmm," Enjolras replied, not looking at all convinced.

And then the silence was back. Eponine had never felt so awkward in her entire life. Enjolras sighed and started to look around the room, making it perfectly clear that the feeling was mutual. In the end she finally bit the bullet and spoke because she couldn't stand the silence any longer.

"Listen Enjolras, I'm actually glad you're here."

"Really? Why?" he said, looking genuinely shocked that she claimed to be pleased to be in his company.

"Right, well, OK, here's the thing," she began, but the minute she started to speak she felt like someone was holding a blowtorch in front of her face. She tried to take a few deep breaths, but instead of helping they just made her feel even more suffocated. "Are you hot? Like, is it warm in here or is it just me?"

"I'm fine," Enjolras said slowly.

"Must just be me then, which is strange because normally I'm always cold. It really annoys Cosette because I always have the heating on and then she gets too warm, it's hard to get the right balance you know?" She was rambling now and Enjolras was looking at her as though she had two heads. He probably thought she was high too. "But anyway," she said, desperately trying to compose herself. "I just, eh, wanted to talk to you about what happened between us, you know, a couple of weeks back."

"Oh right," he said, suddenly becoming very taken with Grantaire's floor. Eponine waited for a moment to see if he was actually going to look at her, but when it because apparent that he wasn't she just decided to get on with it.

"So anyway," she said, trying not to focus on the fact that she felt like she might actually be on fire, "I, um... I'm... yeah... I'm pregnant."

At first she thought he hadn't heard her. He didn't look up, he didn't even more. He just stood there, like a statue, staring at the floor. She waited for him to react, but there was nothing.

"Enjolras?" Eponine was slightly concerned. This had to be the longest time Enjolras had ever been quiet for.

"Me?" he said eventually. He was still staring at the floor.

"Yes, Enjolras. You."

"You're sure?"

"Yes I'm sure. I went to the doctor today and he confirmed what the little white pee sticks said."

"No," he said, finally looking up at her. "I meant are you sure it's mine? It's just I don't know who else you've been with, it mightn't even be mine."

He had just made it perfectly clear what he really thought of her. All that talk of his high morals and compassion and respect for women was just bullshit. He was just like the others. He got what he wanted and now he wanted nothing to do with the consequences. He was just standing there with this disgustingly smug expression on his face, looking at her like she was nothing, like she wasn't even worthy of his time.

"Am I definitely the only one it could be? You're sure there's nobody else?"

The more he kept repeating his point the more furious Eponine got. She was so angry at herself for ending up in this position, so pissed that she let her guard down. She could feel the back of her throat starting to burn and she knew she was going to cry. The last thing she wanted to do was to cry in front of him, she didn't want to give him the satisfaction. She wanted him to stop talking, she didn't want to listen to anymore. She wasn't just going to stand there and let him speak to her like that. So she slapped him.

Enjolras jerked back in shock, holding onto his cheek which was already turning red where Eponine's hand had made contact.

"Why don't you go fuck yourself Enjolras."


	5. chapter four

_A/N - Sorry for the delay with this chapter - my internet went down on thursday night and i only just got back online this afternoon.  
As always, thanks so much for the follows, reviews and favs, I'm so glad you're enjoying the story so far!_

* * *

Enjolras stared around the room. He'd only been there once before; that night 6 weeks ago. It felt slightly inappropriate being back there now; like returning to the scene of a crime.

He walked over the mirror on the far wall and looked at his cheek. There was already a pretty angry looking red welt where the back of Eponine's ring had collided with his face. He ran his finger over the raised skin and winced. He thought he should probably focus on the pain; lock the feeling away in his conscience as a reminder of what a bastard he'd been to her. If anything he'd probably gotten away lightly given what he'd said to her, given how he had treated her.

He turned away from the mirror, walked across the room and sat down on the bed.

He could still see her lying there beneath him. He could still smell her, he could still feel her lips on his neck and her hands grasping at his back. He could still hear the little moans that had escaped from her mouth.

He didn't normally do things like that, alcohol induced or not. Of course there had been girls before her, but that night had been different; she was different.

He sighed and dropped his head into his hands. From the moment he had woken up the next morning he had been a dickhead to her. From that moment he had decided to embark upon a major damage control mission to try and brush the whole thing off as just some drunken misadventure.

If anything he'd needed the alcohol. He would have never had the courage to do what he did without it, he would have never been able to say the things he said.

He didn't know if Eponine remembered what was said between them; he hadn't asked.

And now there was a baby. His baby. _Their baby_.

He pulled his tie down and undid his top button. He didn't know if he could do this, he didn't think he could be what she needed.

He was terrified. Terrified that he was going to mess everything up; terrified that he already had.

* * *

The smell of Chinese food hit Eponine as soon as she walked in the door. It was only then that she realized that she hadn't had anything to eat since the previous night. She really did need to start taking better care of herself. The doctor had given her a stack of leaflets that morning and she made a mental note to actually sit down and read then, not just leave them crumpled in the bottom of her bag.

She could hear Marius and Cosette laughing in the kitchen. For a brief moment she considered venturing in to see if there was any food going spare, but she knew she just didn't have the emotional energy left to make conversation with other people and decided it was probably best to go and listen to her stomach grumble in her room.

After she had slapped Enjolras and walked out of Grantaire's apartment she'd just wandered round the city for a couple of hours. She'd sat by the Seine for a while and watched the seemingly endless stream of carefree people pass by. She'd made up fictional stories for them all; where they were coming from, who they were going home to. Some of them were rushing off to meet up with secret lovers, some of them were hurrying home to children and spouses. None of them were going home alone, they all had someone waiting for them. She probably would have ended up sitting there for most of the night had it not been for an unexpected downpour which eventually forced her to retreat back indoors.

She walked quickly past the kitchen and through the living room. She was right at her bedroom door when she heard Cosette run out of the kitchen and call her name.

"Eponine, hi!"

"Hey Cosette," she said, flinging the door open to find Enjolras sitting on her bed.

"Enjolras is here," Cosette called, about 20 seconds too late.

Enjolras jumped up as soon as the door opened. He looked slightly more disheveled that he had done a couple of hours previously.

"OK, thanks Cosette," Eponine said abruptly, slamming the door. She wondered how long he'd been there for, just sitting in her room. She had no doubt that Cosette and Marius had been dying for her to get home, busting to find out why Enjolras of all people had shown up looking for her. She'd have to make up something in the morning, and she'd also have to apologize for slamming the door in Cosette's face.

"Are you serious right now?" she hissed. "Are you actually serious?"

"I tried to call you but you wouldn't pick up, I was worried..."

She didn't have time for his faux concern. "So what is it you want? Are you actively seeking me out now to call me a liar?" she said, trying desperately to keep her voice down.

"Eponine, please..." he began walking towards her.

"Don't come anywhere near me," she said, backing up against the door. "I want you out of my room now. Who the hell do you think you are? You think you can just waltz into my house and expect me to hear you out after your earlier performance? You actually never cease to amaze me Enjolras, I'll give you that much."

She pulled off her drenched coat and threw it over a chair in the corner. She turned round to face the wall, she didn't even want to have to look at him.

"I asked you to leave."

"I know, I know, and I will," he said, clearing his throat. There was an urgency in his voice that Eponine had never heard before. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. I panicked and I know that's no excuse, but I didn't mean what I said. I'm so so sorry Eponine and I just needed you to know that."

She didn't say anything, didn't even turn round. He didn't blame her, after how he had acted she'd probably never look at him again.

He made a move for the door, but just as he reached to pull it open she spun round. She pushed her wet hair out of her face, crossed her arms across her chest and looked right at him.

"It is your baby Enjolras." she said with a steely determination in her voice.

"I know," he said, "I know that."

"Then why did you say it wasn't?"

"I don't know," he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I don't know. It was the stupidest, most inconsiderate thing I've ever said."

"I don't think I should have to explain myself to you, or defend my actions, but I did think you at least know me well enough to know that I wouldn't try to pass off somebody else's kid as yours. I don't expect anything from you, so if you thought I was going to start demanding money or something then you're wrong. If you don't want anything to do with me that's fine, but I just thought you should know, I thought you had the right to know."

"You don't need to explain yourself to me at all," he replied. "You're not at fault here Eponine, I am."

She didn't think she had ever heard Enjolras admit to being wrong before. She'd lost count of the number of nights she'd sat in the Musain and listened to him argue his point with the others for hours on end until he eventually wore them down. She had never once seen him back down, not once had he ever admitted any kind of defeat.

"I can't believe you just admitted you were wrong," she said, raising her eyebrows. "I guess there really is a first time for everything."

"I can admit when I'm wrong," he replied, trying to appear nonchalant. Now was definitely not the time to start debating his character traits.

The awkward silence from earlier came creeping back. Enjolras wanted to touch her, even to just reach out and put his hand on her arm. Everything felt so cold with so much space between them.

"Well, I really need to take a shower." she said, making it perfectly clear that he had more than overstayed his welcome for the time being.

"Right, of course," he said. "Can we maybe speak again tomorrow,? Or whenever you want to. You just let me know."

"Yeah," she said, "maybe tomorrow."

"OK," he said, "then I'll see you tomorrow."

Just as he was about the turn the door handle she called him. "Enjolras?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry about your face."

"It's OK," he replied. "I deserved it."


	6. chapter five

Enjolras checked his watch for the eighth time. She was almost thirty minutes late. She wasn't coming. She was going to stand him up.

The waitress stopped at his table for the third time.

"Are you sure I can't get you something else?" she nodded towards his untouched glass of water. "Something to start even, you know, while you're waiting?"

"Um, no thanks, I'll just give it a few more minutes."

"OK then," she said, "just give me a shout if you change your mind." She threw him a sympathetic smile as she walked off. He was clearly not the first man she'd seen abandoned in a restaurant.

He tried to distract himself by reading the menu yet again. He didn't know when he should give up, it was pretty obvious that she wasn't coming, but he didn't know when was the appropriate time to admit defeat and just go home. Should he give it the full half an hour before trying to slip out with his tail between his legs?

Then out of nowhere Eponine breezed past the table.

"Sorry I'm late," she said, sliding into the seat across from him. "I've been throwing up since 4pm, so I was just waiting for the lull."

"Are you OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just don't know why they call it morning sickness when it's really all the fucking time sickness."

She sounded beyond pissed off and he couldn't tell if he was because she had been throwing up all afternoon or because she was in his company; maybe it was a combination of the two.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"So you should be, it is technically half your fault."

She opened her menu and began to scan through it. Enjolras wasn't sure what to say, she was right after all; it was half his fault.

"Well, you look really nice," he said in a lame attempt to try and cheer her up.

She glanced up. "I look sweaty and pale. But thanks for lying."

"Oh you're here," the waitress said, sounding pleasantly surprised as she stopped at the table for the fourth time. "I thought you were going to stand this poor guy up."

"Well I did strongly consider it," Eponine replied, "he does need brought down a peg or two."

The waitress glanced over at Enjolras; he just smiled at her, hoping she would assume that Eponine was being sarcastic and not that he actually was an asshole who deserved to be left sitting alone in a restaurant.

"Can I get you a drink?" she asked Eponine.

"A ginger ale would be great thanks."

"Sure thing, I'll be right back."

As soon as she walked away from the table Eponine smirked at Enjolras. "So, everyone thought you'd been stood up huh?"

"It did look that way."

"I kind of wish I had done it on purpose now, that would have been much more amusing."

He knew there was no way she was going to let him off the hook that easy. When he had called her that afternoon she had barely even given one word responses to everything he had said. But she was here and that was the main thing; at least she had actually shown up, surely that was half the battle.

They spent the whole meal making awkward conversation and very obviously avoiding the topic they had actually come to talk about. Enjolras talked about the case he was working on and Eponine pretended to understand. She talked about how Cosette's Dad had been round at their place all day helping to paint the kitchen, and how rude she had felt having to keep excusing herself to go be sick.

"I'm pretty sure he thought I was just really hungover," she said, in between mouthfuls of the chocolate fudge cake she'd ordered for desert. "It was really awkward."

Enjolras decided to take that as his cue to bring up the subject they'd been avoiding all night. Otherwise they were just going to end up going home no further on than they had been when they first got there, and she surely knew as well as he did that they couldn't keep ignoring the elephant in the room forever.

"So I suppose we really should talk about... well, the baby."

"OK, I guess you're right." she said, pushing her now empty plate into the middle of the table.

"So," Enjolras said, taking a deep breath, "when I spoke to Grantaire this morning he said you didn't know if you were even going to keep it."

Eponine had been expecting this to come up. Grantaire had text her to tell her that Enjolras had been at his place all morning freaking out, and that in an attempt to calm him down he had decided to tell him that she didn't even know if she was going to keep the baby, which had apparently just freaked him out even more.

"Which is fine, I mean, it's totally up to you. It's your body after all, so whatever you want to do is totally fine. I'll support whatever decision you make," he said, fumbling over his words as he spoke.

"He's right." she said, sitting up straight.

Enjolras felt his heart drop. She was going to have an abortion, of course she was. Why would she keep the baby? They were too young to be parents, they weren't even a couple, this whole thing had been one big messy accident. She probably just wanted to get rid of it and forget any of this had even happened.

"He's right," Eponine continued, "in that I didn't know what I was going to do initially."

"But you do now?" he said, trying to sound as together as possible.

Enjolras looked devastated. Eponine didn't really know what to do; the man spent his entire life sporting the world's greatest poker face and now here he was, looking like he was seconds away from crumbling right in front of her. She didn't think he'd react this way, she had been pretty sure that deep down he was hoping she'd have an abortion and they could just go back to awkwardly avoiding each other in all social situations.

"I'm going to keep it... the baby. I'm going to keep the baby," she said. "I seriously have to stop referring to it as 'it'."

"So you are going to have to have the baby?"

She nodded. "But I did mean what I said yesterday you know, about you not having to be involved if you don't want to be. I'm not going force you into anything and I really don't expect anything from you. I'm a big girl, I'm perfectly capable of looking after myself, whatever you want to do is up to you."

"I'm not going to leave you to deal with this by yourself Eponine. I want to be as involved as you want me to be."

She knew then that she had to forgive him for how he had reacted when she first told him she was pregnant. There was no point in wasting time by staying annoyed at him, he had apologized and she would just have to learn to let it go. He was still there after all, trying to making things right. And maybe she was a gullible idiot, but she believed him; she believed it when he said that he would be there if she wanted him to be. Besides, surely he at least deserved one chance and if he fucked up then that was it. She'd learnt a long time ago that most people won't worthy of second chances.

"I would like you to be there," she said quietly.

"Well then I'm there," he said.

"So I guess we're going to have a baby then," she said. "Jesus, we're having a baby. Even saying it sounds fucking insane."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "I still can't believe this is really happening."

"I know," she said, "it still doesn't feel real. I mean obviously my body insists on constantly reminding me that it's real, but it just feels like it's happening to someone else."

"Are you sure you're OK?"

"I'm absolutely fine," she said, feeling slightly flattered at his concern, it wasn't something she was entirely used to. "You don't need to worry."

"Have you been to the doctor yet?"

She shook her head. "I'm going on Thursday. You can come if you want? It's in the morning though so you might be at work."

"I'll get the time off," he said, barely giving her time to finish the sentence.

"The appointment's at 11, shouldn't take that long."

"OK, 11 on Thursday. I'll tell them tomorrow."

"Are you going to tell them why you need the time off?" she said.

"No, I'll just tell them it's a medical thing. Besides I don't think you're really supposed to tell anyone until after 12 weeks right?"

"Yeah, so we still have 6 weeks of keeping it on the d/l."

So far only 3 people in the entire world knew about the baby and if Eponine had her way it would stay that way for as long as possible. She hated the idea of everyone finding out. She tried to tell herself that it was because she hated the idea of having to explain herself over and over again, but she knew that it was really because once everyone found out then the whole thing would become exceptionally real and she still felt like she needed some time to get her own head round it without everyone else suddenly started sticking their noses in.

"Listen Eponine," he said, shifting in his seat. "I've been thinking that maybe, only if you wanted to that is, you could move in with me?"

"Move in with you?"

"You know I have a spare room and it just seems right that I should be there, in case you need anything. And it might be nice for us to try and spend some more time together."

"Can't I just call you if I need anything?" she said hesitantly.

"Well yeah, but what if it's 3 in the morning? Or what if it's really urgent? At least if you were at my place then I'd just be in the next room."

"You've certainly changed your tune," she said. "Barely 48 hours ago you were denying all involvement and now you're asking me to move in with you? That really is quite the turn around."

"I'm so sorry Eponine..." he began, the tone of his voice indicating that he was more than ready to start grovelling.

She reached across the table and grabbed his hand. "Enjolras, I'm just messing with you. I think you've more than proven that you're willing to step up to the plate here."

"I am sorry through."

"I know."

This was whole thing was crazy. They didn't even really know each other and he was asking her to move in with him. But maybe that was the whole point. They were going to have a baby, they were stuck with each other for the rest of their lives, whether they liked it or not. Was she really going to agree to move in with him? Was she was seriously considering living with Enjolras? The more she thought about it the more she couldn't help but think that maybe it wasn't such a crazy idea after all.

"OK," she said,

"OK?

"OK, I'll move in."

"You will?"

She knew she could very well live to regret this and that everyone was going to think that they had lost their minds, but surely they had to at least give it a go? What did they have to loose? And it wasn't as though he was asking her to marry him, he was basically asking to her to be his roommate, that was all it was. They would just be roommates who happened to be having a baby together, what could possibly go wrong?

"Yeah. If we're going to do this then I suppose we should at least try and do it semi properly. Or at least try to, I don't know, build a better relationship between us before the baby comes."

"OK, great," he smiled.

"Well then I guess I'll go home and tell Cosette that I'm moving out. Her dad will probably be thrilled, now that he thinks I'm a raging alcoholic."

He gently squeezed her hand. "So we're really going to do this then?"

"Yeah," she said. "I guess we are."


	7. chapter six

_Thank you to everyone who has favorited, followed or reviewed this story, I hope you're still enjoying it :-]  
__happy easter!_

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"That doesn't seem like a very coherent system," Grantaire called from across the room.

Eponine was stood in front of her closet stripping her clothes from their hangers and throwing them onto an ever growing pile in the middle of the floor.

"I thought you came over here to help, not lay on my bed and make snarky remarks whilst watching me pack." she called back.

So far Grantaire's idea of helping had consisted of handing her the books from her bookcase and then taking a break that had now lasted almost 4 hours.

"I am helping, I'm keeping you entertained whilst you pack. I'm helping the time go faster," he said, winking at her. "Anyway, shouldn't your baby daddy be the one over here helping?"

"My baby daddy?" she said, raising her eyebrows.

"Yes, your baby daddy. Enjolras. The father of your child. Co-creator of your fetus. Whatever you want to call him."

"I think I'm just going to stick with calling him Enjolras. You can call him whatever you want, but please don't call him my baby daddy to my face ever again."

"I'm not promising anything."

"You are actually ridiculous." Eponine said. She walked over to her bed and grabbed both Grantaire's hands in a vain attempt to pull him up. "Get up now and help me."

"But why Eponine? Why?" he whined, now lying half on and half off the bed.

"Because I said so."

"If I get up will you finally tell me what Enjolras is like in bed?"

"No, but if you don't get up I will knee you in the crotch."

Grantaire abruptly let go of her hands and jumped up.

"Knew that would work," she said. "Come on."

He dragged himself across the room and sat down on the floor, grabbing some shirts from the top of the now out of control pile of clothes.

"Just fold them and put them into the boxes," she said. "They don't need sorted or anything, I'll just do that when I get there."

"I still can't believe you two are shacking up together."

"Do you think I'm crazy?"

"No," he said. "I think it makes sense, but I just hope you like subtitled films and documentaries about Robspierre, because that's all you're going to be watching over at casa Enjolras."

"Well Cosette only watches _Keeping Up With The Kardashians_ and _The Biggest Loser,_ so at least it'll be a change."

"What did you end up telling Cosette?" he asked.

"Just that Enjolras was thinking about getting a roommate, and it made sense for me to move in there because it's closer to work." She sighed. "And that I had overheard her and Marius talking about wanting to move in together a couple of weeks back, and I figured I'd make the first move so she didn't have to try and broach the subject with me."

This was news to Grantaire. "Did you actually overhear them talking about moving in together?"

She nodded.

"How come you didn't mention it before?"

She shrugged. "I didn't think it was that big a deal."

"So are they moving in together?"

"Yeah. I think he's moving his stuff in over the weekend."

Eponine was trying to pretend like she didn't care, but Grantaire could see right through it, like always.

"Is that really why you agreed to in with Enjolras?"

Eponine sat down beside him, in the middle of the entire contents of her closet, and crossed her legs.

"No," she said firmly. "I'm moving in with him because we're having a baby and we hardly know each other, and it's just the best option for everyone."

Marius and Eponine had met on her first day of University. She'd gotten lost on her way to class and found herself wandering aimlessly round the quad trying to decipher her map. Marius had taken pity on her and come over to ask if he could help. It had turned out he was going to the same class and afterwards he invited her to come to the Musain, the low key wine bar he and his friends basically took over every night, and that was that.

She hadn't developed feelings for him right away, they came over time. He was the first guy who had ever actually been nice to her with no apparent alternate motive and she read everything completely wrong. By the time she was forced to realize that he was just a nice guy who wasn't even remotely in love with her she was far too in love with him to look back. Everyone apart from Marius knew how she felt: it was obvious, she spent the majority of her time following him around like some love sick puppy.

It was because of Eponine that Marius and Cosette had ended up meeting in the first place. She had known Cosette when they were children, back when they both lived in Montfermeil. Cosette and her father had moved away first, so at least she hadn't witnessed Eponine's downfall with her own eyes. She had randomly messaged Eponine on Facebook one day, not that long before her 21st birthday, saying that she was moving to Paris and transferring schools and she was hoping that Eponine might want to catch up and help show her around. At the time Eponine was sleeping on Grantaire's couch, trying her hardest to keep up with her school work and not loose her scholarship. When Cosette found out about her living situation she had insisted that Eponine move into her apartment; her father was paying the rent and was more than happy for her to live there too. A few days after they moved in together Cosette had thrown her a surprise 21st birthday party, with the help of Grantaire. Marius came over early to help set up and by the time the party started they were already inseparable. Eponine spent the entire night in the kitchen getting high with Grantaire and drinking whiskey straight from the bottle. He didn't mention what was happening between Cosette and Marius, he just helped her drown her sorrows and then held her hair back the next morning when she was puking her guts up in his bathroom.

Oblivious to Eponine's feelings for him, Marius was declaring his love for Cosette to her on an almost nightly basis at the Musain. Then when she went home she had to listen to more of the same from Cosette. She felt like someone was ripping out her heart right in front of her face. Eventually she just had to learn to suppress the feelings. Four years later she had become almost entirely numb to the whole thing, except for every now and then when she couldn't help but feel insanely jealous of what they had. Now though she didn't know if it was because she was jealous that Marius had picked Cosette over her, or if it was because she knew she would never have what they had with anyone.

"Anyway, it was obvious," she said, staring to help Grantaire fold. "Although I did think they would get engaged first to placate her Dad, but he's obviously fine with them living in sin."

"Do you think she's suspicious?"

"About what?"

"You moving in with Enjolras?"

"No, I think she was suspicious that night he showed up and sat in my room waiting on me for 4 hours, but now she just thinks we've been planning this for a while and I was just waiting for the right time to tell her. She is probably going to be a bit pissed with she does find out the real reason though."

"Why?"

"Because I lied to her."

As much as she found living with Cosette difficult with from time to time she had actually been a pretty decent roommate and a really supportive friend. Sure she was constantly perky and always thought the glass was half full, which was basically the complete opposite of Eponine's usual life mantra, but she was a good person with a good heart and Eponine did feel guilty about lying to her. She knew Cosette would be upset that she didn't think she could come to her for support.

"I'm sure she'll be OK, she's not going to hold it against you or anything."

"I know she won't, it's Cosette we're talking about here, she couldn't hold a grudge in a bag." she said, watching as Grantaire attempted, with great difficulty, to fold one of her dresses. "Here, give me that," she said, eventually putting him out of his misery.

"So anyway," he said, deciding to stick to easier to fold items from there on in, "how was the doctor?"

"It was fine, a bit awkward, but fine."

"Awkward?"

"Yeah, I mean having someone poking around down there wasn't exactly the most pleasant experience I've ever had, but I swear I've never seen Enjolras look so uncomfortable. It was kind of funny watching him squirm every time the doctor mentioned the words intercourse, period or conception."

"Awh man I wish I'd been there, watching Enjolras squirm is one of my absolute favorite past times."

"He was so torn between trying to appear all super serious and responsible and dying of embarrassment. When the doctor told me to take my underwear off I thought he was going to faint."

"Oh please can I come to the next one?" Grantaire said, sounding slightly too enthusiastic for Eponine's liking.

"No, you cannot come to the next one Grantaire."

"Spoil sport," he said.

They spent the rest of the night working their way gradually through the clothes mound. Every now and again Grantaire would attempt to take another break, but Eponine always managed to reign him back in.

"We're almost done," she said as he lay on the now empty floor. "We only have to clear out the dresser and then we're finished. Come on R, we're so close."

"Fine," he said, clambering up. "But I will be needing a very strong drink once this is done."

"Well you can drink everything I have left in the fridge, how about that?"

"That sounds acceptable."

"Good," Eponine replied.

She was too busy taping up the already packed boxes to notice that Grantaire had already started on the dresser and had discovered the wad of letters she'd been hiding away in the bottom drawer.

"Hey 'Ponine, what are these?"

Eponine looked up to see him standing with the letters in his hand. She hadn't told him about her mother's attempts to contact her. It wasn't that she didn't want him to know, it was more than she didn't deem it a worthy topic to waste her breath on.

"They're nothing, you can just throw them out."

"You sure?"

"U-huh," she said, going back to taping. "I don't know why I'm even keeping them."

"Are they from your parents?"

"Parent," she corrected. "My mother."

"Did you write back?"

"No."

"Are you going to write back?"

"No."

"Are you going to tell them about the baby?"

"No."

"You do know that you don't need them right?" he said. "You have us. You have Enjolras and you have me, and you'll have the others too when they eventually find out."

"I know," she said, smiling. "I know."


	8. chapter seven

_Sorry for taking so long to update, my week ended up being way busier than I was expecting - hopefully this chapter is worth the wait :-]_

* * *

Enjolras's apartment was much bigger than the one Eponine had shared with Cosette. According to Grantaire it used to belong to Enjolras's grandfather, he wasn't sure if he had died or ended up in some home somewhere, but either way he wasn't using it anymore and it had been passed onto Enjolras.

For the first week of their co-habitation she hardly saw him. He had a big case coming up and left before she woke up most mornings and didn't get home until after she'd gone to bed most evenings. When their paths did cross all he did was apologize for not being around and ask if she had everything she needed. Eponine didn't mind his absence that much, she didn't expect him to re-adjust his entire life just because they were now sharing a living space.

Thanks to Marius and Cosette's new living arrangements no one really raised that much of an eyebrow when Eponine had announced one night in the Musain that she'd spent the day moving her stuff into Enjolras's apartment. Sure it was kind of random, but he was the only one of them who lived alone with a spare room, so in a way it actually made sense.

Only Courfeyrac had raised some suspicion. When he had asked her if she and Enjolras were secretly sleeping together she thought Grantaire was going to choke on his drink. He later tried to explain this reaction as simply amusement at the idea of Enjolras secretly sleeping with anybody. She wasn't entirely sure if Courfeyrac completely bought her denial, but he seemed willing to accept it for now at least.

Their second week together started much the same as the first. They ate breakfast together on the Monday, with Enjolras asking her at least 5 times if she definitely had everything she needed. She didn't see him on the Monday night, but she did hear him come in just after 11 p.m. On the Tuesday morning he left before she even got up. She invited Cosette over that night, they ate take out and watched bad TV, and Eponine realized how much she actually missed her company.

When Cosette left just before midnight there was still no sign of Enjolras. Eponine was slightly worried that something may have happened to him, but she didn't really feel like it was her place to start texting him to ask where he was, that definitely felt like crossing some kind of line. So she left him a note to let him know there was left over food in the fridge and went to bed.

It was 2:11 a.m when she woke up. This was a common occurrence for Eponine, sleeping through the night had never been her strongest skill. After laying in bed for a good 20 minutes, failing miserably to get back to sleep, she decided to venture into the kitchen and get a drink.

When she opened her bedroom door and began to make her way down the hallway she was relieved to see a light coming from the living room, letting her know that Enjolras had finally made it home. Assuming that he had just forgotten to turn it off before going to bed she took a quick detour, only to find that he was still very much awake and sitting on the couch surrounded by reams of paperwork.

"Shit," she said, unable to hide the alarm in her voice. "Sorry, I didn't realize you were in here."

"Sorry," he said looking up at her and sounding beyond weary, "did I wake you?"

He had taken his tie off and undone nearly half of the buttons on his shirt. His hair was all over the place, clearly from where he kept pushing it out of his face. He looked completely disheveled and Eponine had never found him more attractive. She didn't know what was wrong with her, sure Enjolras was good looking, and sure she had noticed this before, but in that moment all she could do was stand there and try not to be overcome with the desire to jump him.

"Are you still working?" she asked, trying to appear casual.

"Yeah," he said.

"But it's like 2 in the morning."

"The deadline for most of this is tomorrow, so I need to get through it all before then."

"You work too hard."

He shrugged. "I don't mind."

"Anyway," she said, clearing her throat, "I was going to get a drink if you want something?"

"I'm OK, but thanks."

"Well, do you want some company?"

"Just because I'm dumb enough to sit up most of the night doesn't mean you have to aswell, you should go back to bed."

"I'm up now," she said, leaning up against the doorframe and crossing her arms. "But if you would rather sit out here and work by yourself that's fine."

He smiled. "OK then, maybe just for a little while."

"Just let me get my drink," she said. "You sure you don't want something?"

"A water might be good actually."

"That I can do."

She walked into the kitchen, turned the light on and leant over the countertop. She couldn't understand what was happening. It had to be hormones, that was it, she was just hormonal. She was pretty sure she had read something about this during one of her brief skims over the pregnancy book she bought the previous weekend. She tried to tell herself that she didn't actually want Enjolras, her body was just all over the place. For all she knew she would have wanted anyone she had seen in that moment, she may have even wanted Grantaire if he had had the misfortune of being there, but she definitely didn't want Enjolras. She took a deep breath, stood up and poured two glasses of water; trying to think of anything else besides the way his body had felt on top of hers, or the way his hands had gripped her hips.

When she walked back into the living room he smiled at her and she felt her stomach flutter. She needed to pull herself together.

"Thanks," he said as she handed him one of the glasses.

"You're welcome," she said, sitting down beside him. "So, do you always sit up half the night doing work?"

"Not normally, it's just because of this case, it's turned out to be so much bigger than we thought."

"Are you allowed to tell me what it's about or is it top secret?"

"Basically," he said, "a group of workers are suing a government department because they weren't paying them correct overtime or providing them with the right benefits, so they all eventually came together and decided to do something about it. It started pretty small but it has kind of spiraled now, turns out that particular department has been doing it to their employees for years. "

"Wow," Eponine said. "I should have realized it was all about taking down the powers that be, no wonder you don't mind working all those extra hours."

"Very funny," he said.

"Come on Enjolras, we both know there's nothing you love more than a good old attack on the establishment."

The first time Eponine had laid eyes on Enjolras he had been standing at the back of the Musain giving a highly impassioned speech about tuition fees. The whole way through university he had been at every protest going, he was particularly upset about the tuition fee rises, but he had taken to the streets multiple times over a variety of issues. Eponine had tagged along a couple of times when he had been speaking at rallies, not because she particularly cared for any of his causes, but because there was always a good chance she would see Marius there.

"I'm sorry I haven't been around much," Enjolras said, changing the subject. He sat back and pulled at his already loosened collar.

"That's OK," she said, "I don't expect you to just abandon your life to sit here with me all the time."

"I know, but I asked you to move in so we could try and be..." he stalled. "Well whatever this is, and I've barely seen you."

"Well look, we're spending time together now, so that's something right?"

He set his now half empty water glass down on the coffee table and ran his fingers through his hair. "Yeah," he said, smiling. "I guess it is."

Eponine downed the rest of her water and set her glass beside his. She tucked her legs up and tried to focus on anything else besides how much she wanted to kiss him. She was beginning to think that offering to sit with him for a while was a terrible idea.

"So what are you doing up anyway?" he asked.

"Just couldn't sleep, I'm not really a very good sleeper." she replied.

"Yeah, I remember," he muttered.

"What?"

"That night," he said, "you tossed and turned a lot. You were so restless I wondered if I should wake you up, I thought you might have been having a nightmare."

"Oh right," she said, suddenly feeling highly embarrassed. "Sorry about that. You should have just gone and slept in Cosette's bed."

"I didn't want to leave you," he said quietly. "I mean, I didn't want you to wake up and for me to be gone."

"You left pretty quickly the next morning though." she said, unable to hide the slight bitterness in her tone.

"I thought you would want me to go."

"Why?"

"Because it was awkward, and I didn't want to make it any worse."

"Do you regret it?"

"No." he replied. "Do you?"

"No."

Eponine felt the whole atmosphere in the room change, it was stifling, and there was no way Enjolras wasn't aware of it. He held her gaze until she couldn't take it anymore and forced herself to stare at one of the couch cushions instead. She should have just stayed in bed, she thought. She shouldn't have come out of her room and created this potentially lethal situation.

She felt him move closer. When she looked up their faces were almost touching. There was no going back now; he knew it as well as she did.

His lips only brushed against hers at first, as if he was waiting to for her to push him back and tell him to fuck off. Instead she pushed her mouth onto his, forcing him to kiss her properly. That was all the initiative he needed, she felt his hand snake round her waist, deepening the kiss as he pulled her into him. Eponine reached up and grabbed at his collar, running one of her fingers along the back of his neck. He sucked gently on her bottom lip and she felt her breath catch in the back of her throat.

"What are we doing?" she managed to mumble.

"Do you want me to stop?" he whispered, his lips still pressed against hers.

"No," she said. "Don't stop."


	9. chapter eight

_Thank you so much for all the lovely reviews on the last chapter!_

* * *

Over the next few weeks Eponine found herself spending more nights in Enjolras's bed than in her own. Even she didn't really understand how quickly they found themselves falling into such a comfortable pattern of desperate kisses and tangled limbs.

When she had woken up on the couch the morning after that night in the living room she had been so conscious of her nakedness and couldn't help but feel slightly embarrassed about what had occurred between them the night before. Of course that wasn't the first time they had been so intimate with one another, but the time before they had been able to blame anything they said or did on the fact that they were drunk. That morning there was nothing they could do to shrug off responsibility for their actions, and neither of them had really known how to deal with it. Eponine had spent all of that following day replaying the events of the previous evening over and over again in her head, whilst trying so desperately hard to fight the desire to do it all over again. She had decided that they needed to talk about it, address what had happened and then take it from there. Instead she had been shocked to find Enjolras already home when she got back to the apartment. The second she looked at him she knew what was going to happen; she didn't even manage to take her coat off before his mouth crashed into hers.

Initially he had been almost afraid to touch her, he would always wait for her approval, like he needed to be constantly reassured that what they were doing was OK. The first few times had been rushed and chaotic, as though they were both afraid the other would call time on what was going on at any moment. She couldn't pinpoint the moment when it changed, when they had suddenly become so lost in each other that it was hard to remember a time when it hadn't been that way.

When they were alone they spent most of their time entwined with one another, but in the company of the others they would jump apart if their legs even happened to touch under a table. She'd lost count of the number of nights they had sat in the Musain acting like there was nothing between them, when all she had wanted to do was kiss him in front of everyone. Eponine knew it was ridiculous, but in a weird way she liked how things were, she liked that they were kind of existing in their own little world.

She wished it could stay that way forever.

* * *

"Are you nervous?" Enjolras asked as they sat in the ultrasound room. Eponine was perched on the end of the bed and he was sat on a chair to her left, fidgeting with the cuffs of his shirt.

"I guess," she replied. "Well I don't know if nervous is the right word. Shit scared might be more fitting." She kept shifting her position on the bed; partially because she was trying to get comfortable, and partially because she was so scared she didn't think she could actually sit still.

The door suddenly burst open and a middle aged, extremely cheery looking, woman came bounding in.

"Right my love, Eponine is it?" she said, flashing a massive grin her way.

Enjolras glanced over at her, she could already sense him starting to squirm.

"Eh yeah, that's me." Eponine replied, trying to keep a straight face.

"Alright my sweet, my name is Eleanor and I'm the ultrasound tech who'll be looking after you today." She turned to Enjolras. "And what's your name handsome?"

"Enjolras," he stammered in response.

Eponine smiled, amused at how uncomfortable the word 'handsome' had made him.

"Well it is lovely to meet you both," Eleanor said, as she fiddled with the ultrasound machine. "Now Eponine, you just lie down there and pull your shirt up, and I'll do all the rest."

She scrawled something down on the clipboard in her hand whilst Eponine hesitantly pulled up her shirt. She had become quite conscious of her stomach, it hadn't popped yet and she was convinced that she just looked bloated and a bit flabby. Enjolras was constantly telling her that it was all in her head, that he thought she looked beautiful, but she didn't believe him.

"Right well pets, let's have a look at this baby of yours shall we?" Eleanor said, covering Eponine's belly in cold, clear gel, making her shudder. "Sorry about that love, I know it's cold." She concentrated on the screen as she scanned over her stomach. "OK, let's see what is happening here. Enjolras love, why don't you get closer so you can get a better look."

"You don't have to," Eponine mouthed to him.

He shook his head, got up from the chair and came to stand beside her. Right as he got to her side the room was filled with the sound of loud thumping.

"Lovely strong heartbeat," Eleanor said. "Just what I like to hear."

"That's the baby's heartbeat?" Eponine asked, unable to hide the amazement from her voice.

"It is indeed love, isn't it beautiful? Like music to your ears."

All of a sudden Eponine felt Enjolras grab her hand. When she looked up at him he was just staring at the screen.

"And here we go. So, here's your uterus," Eleanor said, turning the screen to face them, "and right here is your baby."

Eponine don't know what she was expecting, some kind of weird unrecognizable alien, but the picture on the screen looked like a very real and proper baby. She could see a head, she could see a body, she could see this real little person that was happily growing away inside of her.

"Oh my God," Enjolras said.

"Everything is looking just wonderful," Eleanor said, smiling at them. "Congratulations you two."

Eponine couldn't even drag her eyes away from the screen to acknowledge what she was saying. All she could see was the baby and all she could hear was the _thump, thump, thump_ of it's heartbeat filling the room.

"I'll leave you alone for a moment whilst I get your printout." Eleanor removed the scanner from Eponine's stomach and the _thump, thump thump_ stopped.

She missed it. She already wanted to hear it again. She wanted to hear it all the time, to remind her that the baby was really there.

The image on the screen froze. The little grey baby caught there in all it's glory.

Before Eleanor left the room she reassuringly tapped Enjolras on the arm.

For the first few moments after she was gone neither of them said anything. In the end it was Enjolras who broke the silence.

"That is insane."

"I didn't think it would look like a baby," Eponine said, still fixated on the frozen screen.

"Are you OK?"

"And the heartbeat, did you hear the heartbeat?" she said, unable to keep the smile from her face.

He leant over and kissed her. "Yeah, I heard it." he said, grinning.

"That was amazing," Eponine said. "That was actually the most amazing thing I've ever seen.

* * *

"I had my 12 week scan today," Eponine said.

"And how is Enjolras junior?" Grantaire asked.

He was lying on his couch feeling exceptionally sorry for himself after a particularly heavy night with Courfeyrac the previous evening. He had called Eponine begging her to bring him a McDonalds and keep him company, claiming that he was really at death's door this time didn't want to die alone.

"It might be a girl you know," she replied.

"Fine, Enjolrasa junior then."

"You want to see a picture?" Eponine said, already rummaging in her bag for the printout.

"Sure," he replied, making the most annoying slurping noise as he finished off his milkshake.

"Here you go," she said, passing the picture back to him from where she was sat on the floor, her back resting against the couch.

He was quiet for a few moment before asking, "where is it?"

"What?" she said, turning round and sitting up on her knees.

"Where's the baby?" he said, scrunching up his face as he stared intently at the picture in his hands.

"It's right there R," she said, sounding exasperated as she started to point out the baby's shape. "That's it's head, and there's it's body and it's feet. Do you see it now?"

"Oh yeah, I see it," he said, tilting his head to the side. "It looks weird."

"Grantaire!"

"In a nice way!" he exclaimed. "I mean, it's just not a great picture, it's all grey and shit, doesn't really show Enjolras junior is his best light."

"I can't believe you just said my baby looked weird. I came all the way over here to sit with you in your apparent final hours, I even brought you food, and this is how you repay me!"

They were soon so busy bickering that they didn't hear Courfeyrac's key in the door. He was standing 3 feet away from them before they even knew he was back in the apartment.

"What are you two yelling about?"

As soon as Eponine saw him she began to panic.

"Eh, nothing," Grantaire replied, trying desperately, and without much luck, to shove the scan picture into the pocket of his jeans.

"You don't sound suspicious at all." Courfeyrac asked, raising his eyebrows. "What is that?"

"What is what?" Grantaire replied, sounding like the most suspicious person of all time. Eponine was pretty sure all the color had just drained from her face.

"Whatever that is you're trying to hide in your pocket." Courfeyrac dived across the couch before he'd even finished his sentence, grabbing the picture from Grantaire's grasp.

"Courf, give it back," Grantaire yelped, scrambling up from his horizontal position.

Eponine thought she was going to throw up. She watched as the realization of exactly what he was looking at dawned on Courfeyrac.

"Are you pregnant?"


	10. chapter nine

_Thank you so much for all the lovely reviews on the last chapter, I really do appreciate them! And this story has now hit over 100 followers, which is seriously amazing :-]_

* * *

"So guess what I just found out." Courfeyrac said as he swung into his usual seat in the Musain.

Bahorel, Combeferre and Marius were sitting around their favorite table at the back of the reasonably busy bar. After Eponine's revelation Courfeyrac had made a beeline straight there.

"That the girl you hooked up with the other night was actually 40 and not 26 like she said?" Bahorel muttered under his breath.

"What?" Courfeyrac said.

"Eh nothing," Bahorel replied, taking another swig of his beer. "So, you found something out?"

"Yes, yes I did." Courfeyrac said, fully enjoying the fact that he was the one getting to bestow his new found gossip upon the others. "Eponine's pregnant."

"What?" Marius said, his mouth literally dropping open.

"She's pregnant," Courfeyrac repeated.

"Is this fact or rumor?" Combeferre said, sounding highly dubious.

"It's 100% fact. She told me herself, even showed me her scan picture."

"Jesus!" Bahorel exclaimed.

"She's really pregnant?" Combeferre asked, still looking quite unsure about the whole thing.

"Yes she's really pregnant." Courfeyrac replied. "You can call her and ask her yourself if you don't believe me."

"Fuck," Combeferre said. "Is she happy about it?"

"Yeah," Courfeyrac replied. "She actually seems really happy about it."

"I seriously did not see that one coming," Bahorel said.

"It's not that dick Montparnasse's is it?" Marius said, shuddering at the mere mention of Eponine's ex-boyfriend's name.

"I fucking hope not," Combeferre said. "She wouldn't be stupid enough to go back to him again."

"She went back to him enough times before." Bahorel retorted.

"But the last time was different Bahorel," Combeferre said. "You know it was different."

Eponine's turbulent relationship with Montparnasse had been a bone of contention with her friends ever since she had met him back during her first year at university. They hadn't liked him from the start and had never been able to work out what she had even seen in him to begin with. She was constantly jumping to his defense; saying that they had him all wrong, that they didn't know him like she did. He had dropped out of school a couple of months after they met and ended up working at some questionable bar downtown, snorting whatever money he made up his nose. They would break up every few months, and she would swear she was never going back to him, only to take him back a couple of weeks later claiming that he changed. Of course he never did.

It was Grantaire who first raised concerns that their all too frequent arguments may have turned violent. They had all noticed the change in her behavior; she had become quiet and withdrawn and they would go for weeks without seeing her. But Grantaire was the first one who noticed the bruises. None of them had known what to do, they did everything they could to try and make her see sense but she just continued to deny that anything was even wrong.

In the end he put her in hospital. Off his face on a cocktail of God knows what, he had let his temper get the better of him and smashed her face into wall, breaking her nose. It was only then that she finally told them the truth and left him for good. Of course he kept calling her, claiming that he was sorry and that he would never do it again. The phone calls eventually stopped after Grantaire and Bahorel paid a visit to his house and threatened to break his nose if he ever even thought about going anywhere near her again.

"I don't think it's him," Marius chipped in. "Cosette would have mentioned it if she thought they were back together. I don't think she's even seen him in like a year."

"Well what are we going to do if it is him?" Courfeyrac asked.

"I reckon between the lot of us we could manage to bury his body where it would never be found." Bahorel said.

"It's not him," Marius repeated. "I seriously don't think it's him."

"Didn't she say whose it is?" Combeferre asked.

"I didn't ask," Courfeyrac said.

"You are the worst information getter of all time," Combeferre sighed.

"It's not Grantaire's is it?" Marius said, feeling slightly horrified at the prospect of Grantaire trying to parent anything.

"I highly doubt it," Courfeyrac replied. "Remember that time they kissed when they were drunk and he cried because he said it felt like kissing his sister and he didn't think he could ever forgive himself for crossing such an immoral line?"

"Oh yeah," Marius said, rolling his eyes, "I'd blanked that out."

"Eh," Bahorel mused, sitting back in his chair, "does Enjolras know that his new roommate is a 2 for 1 deal?"

"Enjolras!" Courfeyrac said, slamming one of his hands down on the table, causing the other three to jump slightly. "When she first moved in with him I said something was going on between them."

"Enjolras and Eponine, seriously?" Combeferre said.

"Yes seriously," Courfeyrac replied. "You don't think her moving in with him was a bit weird?"

Combeferre shrugged. "Not really."

"Well I do." Courfeyrac insisted. "I think there's more to it than just convenience."

"Enjolras has seemed a lot more chipper recently," Bahorel said, "maybe it's cause he's finally getting some."

"That is true actually," Marius agreed. "The last few times I saw him he did seem a lot more cheerier than usual."

"This theory is ridiculous," Combeferre said, shaking his head and standing up. "I'm going to get another drink."

* * *

"So what are we going to tell them?" Eponine asked.

"The truth I suppose," Enjolras replied, planting a kiss on her bare shoulder.

As they lay in bed that night they were both well aware that Courfeyrac was probably sitting in the Musain at that very moment telling everyone what he had found out at Grantaire's earlier that day, and that it was only be a matter of time before their secret was well and truly out.

"And what is the truth?" she said, propping herself up on one arm and resting the other across his chest.

"That we're having this baby together," he said. Of course he knew that wasn't what she had really meant when she had asked what they were going to tell their friends. But the truth of the matter was that he didn't know what to tell them because even he didn't really know what was really going on.

"I don't want them all to know," she whined, burying her face into his chest.

"Why? Are you ashamed of me?"

She had claimed earlier that she didn't want the others to know because she liked it just being the 3 of them. It was the first time he had heard her refer to them as a 3 and it had made him feel happier than he had ever thought possible, but he hadn't told her that if course.

"Enjolras?" she said, lifting her head so that her chin was resting on his chest.

"Yeah?"

"I am glad this happened with you. You do know that right?"

That was all he needed to hear. He wrapped his arm tightly round her and brought his mouth down to meet hers.

"I..." he began, but then her eyes locked with his and he panicked. "I know."

"Good," she said, kissing him again. "Now, let's just go to sleep, we can deal with that lot tomorrow."

Enjolras lay awake long after Eponine had fallen asleep. It was only then, when he knew she wouldn't be able to hear him, that he was able to say the words he had been so desperate to say to her when she was still awake.

"I love you Eponine."


	11. chapter ten

_sorry for taking so long to get this chapter uploaded, time just ran away from me this week. as always thank you so much for all the reviews on the last chapter - you guys really are the best! _

* * *

"I'm outside, buzz me up."

Eponine smacked the buzzer and lent against the wall, waiting for Cosette's unmissable knock.

When it came and Eponine opened the door Cosette brushed straight past her and walked through into the hall. Eponine shut the door behind her. When she turned round Cosette was just standing there, staring at her.

"Are you pregnant?"

Eponine wasn't expecting her to be so to the point. She could feel her face redden under the pressure of Cosette's intense glare.

"Eponine, are you pregnant?" she asked again, making Eponine feel like a small child getting scolded.

"Yes," Eponine said, her voice coming out in a pathetic squeak.

Cosette had clearly not been expecting that answer. "I thought Marius had gotten it wrong," she said, sounding startled.

"Nah, he got it right," Eponine laughed, trying desperately to lighten the situation. "I'm totally knocked up."

"Oh Eponine," Cosette said, any harshness in her voice now gone. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't know," Eponine sighed, "I don't know why I didn't tell you. I'm so sorry Cosette, it wasn't that I didn't want you to know, I just didn't really know what to say I suppose."

"Come here," Cosette said, grabbing Eponine by the shoulder and pulling her into a hug. "Let's have some tea," she said, smiling as she let her go.

Eponine watched as Cosette walked into the kitchen. She stood in the hall for a few moments, just trying to focus on breathing, before slowly following her. When she walked into the kitchen she was greeted by the sight of Cosette rummaging in one of the cupboards.

"Don't you have any biscuits?"

"Eh yeah, they're in the other cupboard." Eponine said. "I don't think there's anything very exciting though, we haven't really had time to go shopping."

"You have some cookies," Cosette said, pulling the packet from the cupboard just as the teapot started to whsitle. "They'll do."

Eponine leant up against the counter and watched Cosette take charge.

"Here," she said, throwing the packet of cookies to Eponine. "You can go sit down, I'll bring the tea in."

Eponine skulked into the living room and threw herself down on the couch. It didn't take long for Cosette to appear with 2 cups of tea in her hands. She handed one to Eponine and sat down on the couch beside her.

"I can't believe you're having a baby 'Ponine, I just can't believe it." Cosette said, shaking her head. "When Marius told me I thought he had to be wrong."

Eponine laughed. "It is pretty mental."

"Are you OK?" Cosette asked, a sympathetic tone seeping through into her voice.

"I'm fine Cosette," Eponine replied, trying to sound reassuring. "I'm seriously fine. I'm actually really happy."

"And everything is OK with the baby?"

"So far, so good," Eponine said, smiling.

Cosette set her cup down and reached over to grab Eponine's hand. "Oh 'Ponine, I'm so glad that you're happy."

"I know it sounds crazy, but I really am."

"I think this is going to be a really great thing for you, I think you're going to be a great mom." Cosette said, returning Eponine's smile.

"I hope you're right," Eponine said. "I just hope I don't mess the poor thing up too much."

Cosette squeezed Eponine's hand before lifting her cup back up and taking a sip of her tea.

"So," Cosette said, sounding hesitant. "The guys have this ridiculous theory."

"Oh yeah?" Eponine said, tucking her legs up. "And what is this theory?"

"That there is something going on between you and Enjolras," Cosette laughed. "And that it's his baby. Ridiculous right?"

It took Cosette a moment or two to realize that Eponine wasn't laughing aswell.

"It is ridiculous isn't it 'Ponine?"

"Not really..."

"Eponine?"

"They're right," Eponine said bluntly. "It's Enjolras's kid."

"You and Enjolras?" Cosette exclaimed, unable to keep the shock from her voice. "Are you serious?"

Eponine nodded.

"Jesus, Eponine. How long has this been going for?"

"Not long," Eponine replied. "I got pregnant the first time we slept together."

"The first time?"

"I know, just my luck right?"

"So are you and Enjolras together?"

"I don't know." Eponine sighed. "I don't know what is going on."

"What do you mean?" Cosette asked, trying to get her head around the barrage of information that Eponine was throwing her way.

"That first night, we were drunk and we decided to just act like the whole thing hadn't happen. Then I found out I was pregnant and he was kind of a dickhead at first. but he wised up pretty quickly and asked me to move in with him."

"And then what happened?"

"We had sex again." Eponine said matter of factly.

"Just the once?"

"Not exactly." Eponine said, suddenly starting to feel slightly uncomfortable.

"Hang on, let me try and get this straight," Cosette said. "You're having a baby together, you're living together and you're clearly sleeping together, but you're not sure if you are together?"

"Basically yes," Eponine said, fully aware of how ridiculous the situation sounded to an outsider.

"Haven't you talked about it?"

"No," Eponine said. "I mean we talk about the baby, we talk about the baby all the time, but we just don't talk about us."

"Why not?" Cosette asked. "Don't you think you need to talk about? That you need to work out what is going on between you?"

Eponine sighed. "I think it's better if we don't."

"How?" Cosette asked. "How is that better? You're having his baby, you at least need to know where you stand with him."

"It's just that things between us are really good now and I don't want to mess it up by insisting that we start to talk about our feelings. Enjolras just isn't very well equipped to deal with that sort of thing."

"What sort of thing?"

"Relationships, emotions, any sort of human feeling," Eponine said. "You know him, you know what he's like."

"Well he needs to get equipped to deal with it." Cosette said sternly.

Eponine shrugged.

"Eponine?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you in love with him?"

Eponine didn't know what to say. She hadn't been expecting Cosette to throw that question at her. Was she in love with Enjolras? She had been convinced she was in love with Marius, but now she could see that it had just been infatuation. She was never really in love with him, even though at the time the whole situation had nearly killed her. She had thought she loved Montparnasse, but now she knew that was just fear masquerading as love.

Enjolras was different, she knew that much. But did she love him? She knew that she felt safe when he was around, safer than she had ever felt in her entire life. She knew that being with him made her happy, even when they were just sitting in silence watching some documentary he'd been so excited about seeing. She knew that her body had never reacted to anyone the way it reacted to him. She knew if she was given the chance to go back and do things again she would still pick him to be the father of her child. It was then that she realized that she had felt that way about anyone else. It was then that she knew she was well and truly fucked.

"Yeah," she said. "I'm totally in love with him."


	12. chapter eleven

_Thank you so much for all the reviews on the last chapter, I really do appreciate it - keep them coming!_

* * *

"Where's the father of the year this fine evening?"

"Working," Eponine said, as she spooned a mountain of rice onto Grantaire's plate.

"Is he actually going to take paternity leave when Enjolras Jr arrives?" Grantaire asked, watching Eponine cover his rice in sweet and sour sauce before handing him the now almost over-flowing plate.

"Yeah, of course." Eponine said, grabbing her own plate from the counter before leading the way into the living room.

"So he's told them about his impending fatherhood then?" Grantaire asked, as they sat down on the couch, carefully balancing the plates full of Chinese food on their laps.

"Yes he's told them," Eponine retorted. "Why wouldn't he have?"

"No reason, I just would have liked to have been a fly on the wall during that conversation. 'Eh, sir,'" Grantaire said, doing an exceptionally poor impression of Enjolras. "'I seem to have accidentally impregnated a woman and I thought you should know.'"

"You're hilarious R, absolutely fucking hilarious," Eponine said, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry, are we not allowed to make fun of Enjolras anymore now that you've taken him as your lover?"

Eponine felt her throat tighten and was suddenly grateful that she didn't have any food in her mouth at that moment, because she probably would have choked on it.

"What did you say?" she said, turning to look at Grantaire, who was just smiling back at her.

"Cosette told Marius about your little setup and he in turn told me." he replied. "Well, he didn't tell me as such, it was more than he mentioned it, thinking that I already knew how you two were shagging away here in your little love nest."

"It's not like that."

"Hey, you don't need to try and explain yourself to me," Grantaire replied.

"Are you mad because I didn't tell you?"

"No, why would I be? I mean you didn't bother telling me the first time you fornicated with the marble statue, so why would you even think to let me know that this has now become a regular thing?"

"Grantaire," Eponine said, setting her plate down on the coffee table, "please don't be mad at me."

"I'm not mad," Grantaire said, shoveling a forkful of food into his mouth.

"Yes you are."

He followed Eponine's example and set his plate down beside her's.

"Even Pontmercy knew before me 'Ponine."

"R," she said, grabbing his hand and resting her head on his shoulder, "please don't be mad at me."

"What are you going to do to make it up to me huh?" he said. "I'm supposed to be your best friend Eponine, and yet you kept something like this from me. I'm expecting some pretty grand gesture here."

"Like what type of grand gesture?" she asked. "I'm not letting you come to my next doctor's appointment if that's what you have in mind."

"Oh no, that's not what I had in mind at all." Grantaire replied. "What I want is for you to tell me exactly what happened the night Enjolras Jr. was conceived. Then, and only then, will I consider forgiving you for keeping such a secret from me."

Eponine should have expected it. Ever since he had found out about the baby it had become Grantaire's life goal to find out how she had ended up in bed with Enjolras. "Why are you so obsessed with that night?"

"I just want to know how this whole thing started." Grantaire said. "I just want to know how we got here, because, I'm going to be honest with you, it's still blowing my mind."

Eponine sat up.

"Fine," she said eventually, "I'll tell you."

She glanced over at Grantaire before she started speaking. He looked absolutely thrilled at the fact that his emotional blackmail was about to pay off.

"So, it was that night we were all drinking at my place," she began.

"There have been many, many nights that fit that description 'Ponine, you'll need to be more specific."

"It was the weekend Marius took Cosette away to his aunt's house in the country and I thought he was going to propose to her." Eponine said quickly. She hoped that Grantaire's memory of that weekend as a whole was pretty hazy and that he wouldn't bring up her hysterical phone call which had lead to him coming over to her apartment in her first place.

"Oh yes, I know the night you're talking about," he said, lifting his plate back up. "Enjolras was round at mine and he was all stressed, just for a change, and I brought him and that bottle of _Jägermeister _over with me."

Eponine nodded. "That's the one."

"OK, so continue."

"So, you passed out and we just started talking and one thing lead to another..."

"No no," Grantaire interrupted, shaking his head. "One thing lead to another doesn't count as the full story, I want the gory details here."

Eponine sighed. "I was drunk, and I was upset about the whole Marius thing and he was just being nice."

"Just being nice?"

"Yeah, you know, just saying nice things to make me feel better."

"Like what?" Grantaire asked with his mouth full. "What kind of sweet nothings was he whispering into your ear?"

"You know I really don't want to tell this story," she said, "it's embarrassing."

"Embarrassing for you or for Enjolras?"

"It's just embarrassing." she said, finally lifting her own plate back up from the coffee table.

"Why? Did he start confessing his undying love for you or something?" Grantaire said, laughing. After a few seconds he realized that Eponine wasn't laughing too. "Why aren't you laughing? I made a joke."

"It's just not really that funny." Eponine said, poking at her food.

"Did he actually tell you that he loved you?"

"No," she replied, "he didn't use the word love."

"But he did say that he had feelings for you, is that what you're trying to tell me here?"

"He was drunk Grantaire, he didn't mean it."

"Enjolras never says something he doesn't mean, drunk or not."

Eponine shrugged.

"What did he say?"

"You're really not going to let this go, are you?"

"Nope," Grantaire said. "So you may aswell just admit defeat and tell me now."

"He said that Marius was an idiot for not being able to see what was right in front of him," Eponine said, staring at her plate as she spoke. "He said that I was too good for him anyway, that someone as smart and beautiful as me shouldn't be wasting my time on someone like Marius."

She paused, hoping that Grantaire would let her stop there - but when she looked up he was staring at her, fully expecting more. "He said that if I felt that way about him it would make him the happiest man on earth and then he kissed me." she said in a rushed tone, re-adverting her stare back to her plate.

"He loves you," Grantaire gasped. "He actually loves you."

"No he doesn't." she snapped back.

"You two are going to get married." he gushed. "I can't believe it, I can't believe this is happening."

"We're not going to get married Grantaire, stop talking crap."

"Yes you are." Grantaire said. "Here was me thinking you were just shagging, but it turns out there's all these feelings involved. This is some serious Romeo and Juilet shit here 'Ponine, you are right in the middle of one of the great love stories of our time."

"Whatever R," Eponine said, finally eating some of her food instead of just pushing it around her plate.

"You know I'm right Eponine, that's why you're being so cagey, that's why you didn't want to tell me the story in the first place." Grantaire said. "How many times have we mocked Enjolras for being emotionally stunted huh? I mean, until I found out you had slept with him I was actually pretty serious when I used to say that I thought he was still a virgin."

"You're taking this far too seriously."

"No I'm actually not. This is Enjolras. En-jol-ras. You're familiar with Enjolras and his general way, right? Anyone else I would have said he was just feeding you lines to get you into bed, but not him." Grantaire set his plate back down and sank back into the couch. "He meant what he said Eponine. Fuck. He's clearly been harboring all these feelings for you all this time, and we all had no idea."

* * *

When Eponine woke up the next morning she was greeted by a very rounded, very obvious bump protruding from her middle.

In a break from the norm she had woken up before Enjolras. It was his first day off in weeks and he was still fast asleep. She had been trying to sneak out of bed and not wake him when she had noticed it.

She just lay there for a few moments and stared at it poking out from underneath one of Enjolras's shirts that she had taken to sleeping in. To begin with she was afraid to touch it, but after a few minutes she gingerly reached down and allowed both her hands to rest on on top of it. She lay there like that for what felt like 5 minutes, but when she eventually glanced at the clock on the bedside table she realized she had been lying there in that same position for over an hour.

"Enjolras," she whispered, finally plying her hands away from her stomach and shaking the sleeping form beside her.

"Hmm?" he groaned, his eyes still tightly closed.

"Wake up," she said, grabbing his shoulder and shaking him roughly.

"Why?" he moaned, shielding his face with his arms.

"You need to see this."

Enjolras stretched as he slowly opened his eyes. "This better be good," he mumbled.

Eponine grabbed his hand and placed it on her now very swollen abdomen. His eyes suddenly shot open.

"Where did this come from?" Enjolras said, staring wide eyed at Eponine's stomach. "It wasn't there yesterday right?"

"No," she replied, "it definitely wasn't there yesterday."

"So it just popped out in the middle of the night?" he was still just staring, even though his hair had started to fall in front of his eyes and was now obstructing his view.

"Yeah," Eponine laughed, reaching over to push the dirty blonde curls from his face.

Enjolras pushed his shirt up over Eponine's stomach and re-placed his hand back on her now bare skin.

"Worth waking up for huh?" she said, smiling.

"Definitely," Enjolras said, sounding utterly amazed.

Eponine watched as he ran his hand back and forth across the bump. He looked mesmerized. She couldn't help but remember her conversation with Grantaire the night before. Surely Enjolras hadn't secretly been pining after her for God knows how long? Surely he really had just said those things that first night to try and make her feel better, to try and make her feel a little less rejected?

After Grantaire had left she had replayed her entire prior relationship with Enjolras in her head. She wouldn't have said he was someone she had been particularly close to, they hadn't shared that many deep conversations or exceptionally jovial moments, but the more she thought about it the more she could remember multiple times when she had caught him watching her across the Musain when he thought she wasn't looking. She had been able to count more than a dozen times when he had driven her home when she had gotten too drunk to do it herself. And she remembered that when Montparnasse had put her in the hospital she had woken up in the middle of the night and saw him through the window outside her room, he had just been sitting there. The next morning she thought she had dreamt it, that the pain meds had made her hallucinate; but now she wasn't so sure.

She knew how horrible it was to watch the person you were in love with be in love with someone else; she'd been there. She knew how it felt like being stabbed in the chest every time you had to watch that person waste their emotions on someone else, oblivious to the fact that you were right there. She hated that thought that she may have made Enjolras feel like that, that she had been so wrapped up in her unrequited love for Marius Pontmercy that she hadn't realized that he was right there; and that he was wonderful.

"You OK?" Enjolras said, kissing her softly and suddenly snapping her out of her train of thought.

"Yeah, I'm great," she said, smiling at him. "I'm really great."


	13. chapter twelve

_This story just hit 100+ reviews - thank you all so much for taking the time to tell me what you think so far, I'm so pleased that you're still enjoying it! _

* * *

Eponine jumped up from her desk the minute the clock hit six. During her final year of university she had manged to get an internship at an up and coming fashion house in the city. They ended up offering her a full time job once she graduated and she had been there ever since. Most nights she would try to hang around for a bit at the end of the work day, she still felt reasonably new and was still trying to prove herself, but tonight was different. Enjolras had promised he would be back for seven and she wanted to make dinner for him coming home. She said her goodbyes and laughed to herself as she headed to the elevator. If someone had told her a year ago that she would be rushing home from work to have dinner on the table for some man she would have laughed in their face. She made a mental note not to mention any of this to Grantaire because if he found out he actually would laugh in her face.

When she got outside the building she saw a stream of people filing into the Metro station across the street and decided to just to walk back to the apartment. She hadn't coped well in cramped spaces before she was pregnant, but now even the thought of having to sit on a packed train was making her chest tighten.

She was so busy mentally planning her menu for the evening that she didn't bother paying any attention to what was going on around her. She'd only been walking for about 5 minutes when she heard an all too familiar voice call out in front of her.

"Well well well, if it's isn't Eponine Thénardier."

She would have recognized that voice anywhere.

_Montparnasse._

She didn't even have look up, she knew it was him. She spun round and started walking back the way she came, pretending that she hadn't heard him and hoping that he would go away. But of course he started to follow her. Montparnasse was never one to just give up.

She just kept walking, looking straight ahead, and tried to quicken her pace. They were in the middle of a packed street during rush hour, this wasn't like those nights when he would trap her between his body and the wall, or lock her in the bathroom; but it didn't matter, she still felt the same fear starting to overtake her body.

Despite her best efforts it only took him a few seconds to catch up with her.

"It's not nice to ignore people when they're just trying to be friendly Eponine, where are your manners?" he said, as he started to walk alongside her. She felt his eyes look her up and down before locking on her bulging stomach. "Fuck me," he squalled, "are you pregnant?"

She didn't reply. She just continued to walk, wrapping her arms protectively across her middle. She wanted him to stop looking; just having his eyes on her was making her flesh crawl.

"Who's the lucky guy?" Montparnsse asked, pulling a pack of cigarettes from the pocket of his beat-up looking leather jacket.

"None of your business." she said, still looking straight ahead.

"Awh Eppy, did you not manage to catch his name before you let him fuck you?"

He pulled a cigarette from the pack and placed it in-between his teeth. Eponine wanted to shove it down his throat.

"You really should set higher standards for yourself Eponine, isn't that what all those self help books say?"

"I have set higher standards for myself," she hissed, "that's why I got the fuck away from you."

He smirked. "Nice to see that the fire is still there Thénardier, that's what I always loved most about you."

"Don't call me that."

"Why not baby? It's your name isn't it?"

"No."

"You can't hide from it sugar, once a Thénardier always a Thénardier." he said, blowing smoke into her face.

"Fuck off." she snapped.

They finally reached the Metro station and Eponine joined the masses still streaming in, hoping that he would drop back; but instead he stubbed his cigarette out on the wall and stuck to her side. The crowd of people around them caused him to be pushed so close to her that she could feel his hot breath on her face. She wanted to be sick.

"Do mommy and daddy dearest know about your impending arrival?"

"No."

"Well, wouldn't it be a real shame if I let your little secret slip to your father next time I see him."

For the first time since their meeting Eponine turned to look at him. He smirked, clearly loving every minute of this, loving the fact that after all this time he was still able to pull something out of the bag to hold over her.

"What do you mean the next time you see my father?"

"Oh, we've become quite close over the past year. Turned out that a business associate of mine used to do business with him. Small world eh?"

Eponine knew the kind of 'business associates' that Montparnasse had, and she wasn't exactly surprised that at least one of them knew her father.

"I've been to visit him a couple of times, he's doing really well; the model prisoner, the ideal candidate for parole if you ask me." he said. "And I know he'll over the moon to hear that he's going to be a grandfather."

"You're a bastard."

He started laughing and then she saw the switch in his eyes. It was a look she'd seen countless times before. She'd learnt how to read him over the years; her ability to second guess him was what had kept her alive during the fucked up mess that had been their relationship. She didn't think he would actually hit her in the middle of the packed station, but at the same time she exactly wouldn't put anything past him.

"Now, now Eppy," he snarled. "Watch your mouth."

"Or what Montparnasse?" she said. "You'll hit me?"

"Don't fucking tempt me Eponine," he spat.

They moved with the crowd towards the ticket turnstiles. Eponine began to panic, she needed to loose him, she couldn't have him get on the same train as her and find out where she lived. She didn't want him to know where she lived, she didn't want him running off to her father and telling him exactly where he would be able to find her.

She began to rummage in her pocket for her ticket, hoping that he wouldn't notice how erratic her breathing had become.

"Well, isn't this a shame," he said, holding his hands up. "I appear to have left my ticket in my other jacket."

He finally started to back away from her, much to the annoyance of the people around them, who just continued to push past him.

"Until next time Eppy," he said, his eyes still locked on her. He began walking backwards, smacking into the commuters charging towards the turnstiles. "You take care of yourself and that baby, we wouldn't want anything happened to either of you now would we?"

He smirked again, before turning round and disappearing into the crowd.

* * *

"Eponine!" Enjolras called as he let himself into the apartment.

There was no response.

He grabbed his phone from his back pocket as he wandered into the kitchen. When he pushed the door open he found Eponine sitting at the kitchen table. He knew something wasn't right the minute he laid eyes on her: she looked ashen.

"Oh shit, you're home," she said, scrambling up from the table. "Sorry, I didn't even realize what time it was."

"Hey hey," Enjolras said, grabbing her hands. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she lied.

"Eponine..."

She considering lying again, but what was the point? The last thing she wanted to do was start keeping secrets for him, even if it was for a good reason. And besides pulling the wool over Enjolras's eyes wasn't exactly the world's easiest task, he would see right through it - he always did.

"I saw Montparnasse today."

Eponine's words hit Enjolras like a tonne of bricks. Even the sound of that name made him feel infuriated. He wouldn't say he was a particularly violent person, but when it came to Montparnasse he dreaded to think what he would be capable of if he ever got his hands on him.

"Did he touch you?" he asked, squeezing her hands and trying to appear as calm as possible.

"No," Eponine replied.

"Where was he? Where did you see him?"

"Just on the street, near to my office."

"Are you sure he didn't touch you? You would tell me if he touched your right?" he said, the anger starting to seep through into his voice.

"Enjolras," she said, trying to smile at him reassuringly, "he didn't touch me. I swear to you, he didn't lay a finger on me."

"Come here," Enjolras said, pulling her into him, so her head rested on his chest. She could hear his heart beat through his shirt, and for the first time since she had gotten home she felt the fear that had been inhabiting her body start to subside.

"He's been speaking with my father." she said, wrapping her arms round his waist.

"Your father?" Enjolras said, sounding confused. "In prison?"

Eponine nodded. "Turns out they have some mutual friends."

"Eponine look at me."

She rather begrudgingly lifted her head from his chest.

"I won't let them hurt you," he said, "either of them."

"That's a very chivalrous of you." she replied. She couldn't really imagine Enjolras in a fight, not a physical one at least. She'd witnessed him turn people into quivering messes during debates, but she couldn't picture him using his fists to settle an argument.

"I'm serious," he said, brushing back a stray piece of hair that had fallen onto her face. "If he comes anywhere near you again I want to you to tell me."

"I don't need you to look out for me Enjolras," she said. "I can take care of myself."

"I know," he replied. "I know that. But the least I can do whilst you're lugging my baby around is make sure that you're safe and that you're happy, that's all I care about."

"You're too nice to me." she said, reaching up to kiss him.

"Are you sure you're OK?" he asked.

"I feel better now," she said, burying her head back into his chest. "Thank you."

"Anytime," he said, kissing the top of her head.

"I was going to make dinner for you coming home," she murmured. "I bought ingredients and everything."

"Hey, don't worry about it." Enjolras replied.

"It's probably for the best," she said, wrapping her arms even tighter round his waist. "I'm a shit cook."


	14. chapter thirteen

The following Friday night Enjolras suggested that they go to the Musain. They'd both been so busy recently that they'd barely darkened the door of their old stomping ground, and the others were beginning to make noise about the fact that they hardly saw them anymore.

By the time they managed to get themselves organized and actually get out of their apartment everyone else was already long assembled.

"Fucking finally!" Grantaire yelled as Eponine and Enjolras made their was across the busy bar to their usual tables at the back, which their friends already occupied.

"We thought you weren't coming," Courfeyrac said. "We were actually taking on bets on exactly when one of you was going to text and bail."

"Oh yeah, cause you're all amazing time keepers who are never late for anything," Eponine said, setting her purse on the table.

"But we're just late," Courfeyrac replied. "We do actually show up eventually, you two on the other hand have just been AWOL recently."

"We've just been busy," Enjolras said as he sat down.

"Busy doing what?" Courfeyrac said, "Making more babies?"

Grantaire sniggered.

"How much have you had to drink?" Eponine asked.

"I may have had some drinks," Courfeyrac replied.

"By some he means that he's been here with Grantaire since lunchtime," Marius chipped in.

"Figured," Enjolras said. "Are you OK?" he said, turning to Eponine, who was still standing. "Do you not want to sit down?"

"Yeah, 'Ponine, you should sit down," Joly said, already looking highly concerned just by her sheer presence in the bar. She knew that if he had his way she'd be on bed rest from now until she gave birth. She was still highly amused by the fact that the biggest hypochondriac she had ever met was actually a fully qualified doctor, she always thought he should have his own TV show or something, the whole thing was just too ironic.

"I'm just going to go the bathroom first," she replied.

"Oh, I'll come with you," Cosette said, getting up from her place beside Marius. "I need a rest-bite from freakin' Thing 1 and 2 over there," she said, pointing towards Grantaire and Courfeyrac, who feigned hurt expressions as the two women left the table.

"So, have you told Enjolras you love him yet?" Cosette asked the second the bathroom door closed behind them.

"No," Eponine replied as she made her way over to the sink. She glared at her face in the mirror; it was definitely getting fat.

"You need to tell him," Cosette said, leaning against the sink beside Eponine.

"What I really need is to pee," Eponine said, spinning round and heading for the first empty cubicle.

The entire time she was in there Cosette continued to preach to her about why she needed to tell Enjolras how she felt and how they needed to sort it out before the baby was born because it was't fair on either of them.

Eponine just made noise in agreement with everything she was saying, after all she was only making fair points and Eponine knew she was right, she just didn't want to deal with it right now, especially after Grantaire's revelation that Enjolras had probably been in love with her long before anything had ever happened between them.

It was only when she stood up from the toilet that she saw the blood. There wasn't a lot of it, but it was definitely blood. Cosette was still talking, oblivious to what was going on on Eponine's side of the door.

Eponine thought she might faint. Something was wrong. There shouldn't be blood.

She just stood there, letting Cosette ramble on. Her whole body was starting to shake. She didn't know what to do.

"Eponine, you OK?" Cosette finally said, after being greeted with silence for long enough to make her concerned.

"Cosette, can you go get Joly for me?" Eponine said, trying to sound calm.

"Joly? Why do you want Joly?" Cosette replied, knocking the door of the cubicle. "Eponine let me in."

"Can you please just go and get Joly and Enjolras, Cosette, please." she said, this time her voice coming out as nothing more than a desperate squeak.

"Eponine, what's wrong?" Cosette replied, starting to panic.

"I'm bleeding."

* * *

Enjolras and Grantaire sat in the perfectly white, and eerily quiet, hospital corridor.

By the time they had gotten into the bathroom Eponine was crying, slouched against the cubicle wall. Joly had tried to keep her as calm as possible, telling her that it was probably nothing to worry about, but the whole way to the hospital she had just kept apologizing. She had laid in the back of Joly's car telling Enjolras how sorry she was over and over again. He had told her it wasn't her fault, he had stroked her hair and told her that everything was going to be OK, but she wouldn't listen.

When they reached the hospital they had rushed her in right away and told Enjolras to wait. He didn't know how long ago that had been, he had no idea how long he and Grantaire had been sitting there staring at the same white wall, but it felt like an eternity. Joly had wandering off a little while ago, saying something about going to try and find someone he knew who was working the night shift and might be able to give them an update on what was going on. He hadn't come back yet.

Enjolras had never felt so helpless in his entire life. There was nothing he could do, absolutely nothing. Eponine needed him and he couldn't help her.

"You want something to drink?" Grantaire asked. "I could go see if I could get us some tea or something?"

Enjolras shook his head.

"What about something to eat? Are you hungry?"

"What is she loses the baby Grantaire?" Enjolras said, barely even able to comprehend the words coming out of his mouth.

"She'll be fine," Grantaire replied, trying to sound as positive as possible, even though he was terrified. "They'll both be fine."

Enjolras leant over with his head in his hands. It was only after a few moments, when his shoulders began to shake, that Grantaire realized he was crying. Grantaire had never seen his friend like this before and he didn't know what to do. Enjolras was the most together person he had ever met, and now he was falling apart right in front of him.

"If something happens to her..." Enjolras said, his voice coming out in muffled sobs.

Grantaire reached over and grabbed Enjolras's shoulder, squeezing it before leaving his hand there. He didn't really think anything he said would help, he didn't think there was a right thing to say in this situation, but the very least he could do was let Enjolras know that he was there.

The silence returned and they continued to sit there, as if frozen in that position. When the double doors not far from them swung open both men turned to see a doctor marching up the corridor towards them.

"Mr Enjolras?" the doctor said, looking between them, unsure exactly which of the two he should be speaking to.

"Yes," Enjolras said, jumping to his feet as he tried to wipe his face with the back of his hand.

"Mr Enjolras, I'm Dr. Petit," the doctor said, reaching out to shake Enjolras's hand.

"Eponine?" Enjolras asked desperately.

"Ms Jondrette is fine, and so is the baby. They're both fine."

"Oh thank God," Enjolras gasped. He bent over with both hands on his knees and tried to take deep breaths. He felt like his breath had been caught in his throat from the moment Cosette had rushed out of the bathroom calling for Joly.

"What happened?" Grantaire asked. "Why was there blood?"

"We don't know unfortunately," Dr. Petit replied. "Bleeding at this stage in the pregnancy is always a cause for concern, and sometimes we just don't know why it happens, but I wouldn't worry about that too much, we've checked them both out and they're both absolutely fine."

"Thank you Doctor," Enjolras said, trying to regain his composure.

"She is asking for you Mr. Enjolras," Dr. Petit said. "If you'd like to follow me I can take you to her."

"Yes," Enjolras said, breathlessly. "Yes, I need to see her."

He was just about to take off down the corridor when he turned to Grantaire.

"Thank you."

"Hey, don't mention it," Grantaire replied, smiling. "Now go to Eponine. I'll call the others, let them know that everything is alright."

* * *

The doctor showed Enjolras to Eponine's room and gave him a reassuring pat on the back before closing the door behind him.

Enjolras didn't say anything, he just bounded straight over to the bed, took Eponine's face in his hands and kissed her. It was a desperate frenzy of a kiss and the second his mouth met hers Eponine started to cry.

"Hey," Enjolras said, brushing his thumb across her cheek, "why are you crying?"

"I'm just so glad that you're here." she said, wrapping her arms round his neck and pulling him closer: she needed him to be closer.

"I'm here," he said, "I'm not going anywhere."

"That was the most fucking terrifying thing that has ever happened to me," Eponine said, laying her head on his shoulder.

"But you're both OK," Enjolras said, resting one of his hands on her bump as he kissed her forehead. "You're both OK," he repeated, as if needing to reassure himself that everything was alright.

"Enjolras?" she said, lacing her fingers with his.

"Yeah?"

"I really am sorry."

"Eponine, you don't need to apologize, this wasn't your fault..."

"No," she said, interrupting him. "I'm sorry for the way I treated you."

"The way you treated me?" he said, sitting up and causing her to lift her head from his shoulder.

"When I thought I was losing the baby I was so fucking scared that if I did that meant I would lose you too," she began.

"Eponine..."

"Just let me finish," she said, taking a deep breath before she started speaking again. "I'm a pretty miserable bitch most of the time, but not when I'm with you, being with you makes me so happy that I don't even know how to process it. This past while I've been so afraid of messing up what we have that I've been avoiding actually discussing it, we both have."

Enjolras shifted on the bed, knowing that she was right, he was just as guilty of burying his head in the sand as she was.

"I just kept thinking, 'oh now is not the right time, I'll talk to him about it next week', and that was really fucking selfish of me because what if we don't get next week? When I was laying here earlier and no-one would tell me what was going on, all I wanted was you: all I wanted to do was tell you that I love you because I was so fucking frightened that fate was going to intervene and that we were going to fall apart, and that next week was never going to come and I would never get the chance to say it to you. So there, I'm saying it now, and I know this isn't exactly the world's romantic setting but I just need you to know that I do love you Enjolras," she said, her voice starting to break. "I really do love you."

Enjolras kissed her, but this time it was slow and gentle and Eponine thought she might die when he pulled his mouth back from hers.

"I love you too," he said softly.

Eponine smiled before burying her head into the crook of his neck. "It sounds nice when you say that."

"I love you," he whispered in her ear.

"Say it again."


	15. chapter fourteen

_thank you for all the reviews on the last chapter - i really am super grateful to anyone who has taken the time to review this story, so thank you!_

_this chapter is nowhere near as intense as the previous one, and there's a little bit of fluff at the end for good measure :-]_

* * *

Marius and Cosette got engaged two weeks later.

They all knew it was coming, mainly due to the fact that Marius made the mistake of sharing his plans with Courfeyrac, who managed to keep the news a secret for about an hour. But even without his exposure everyone knew that after they moved in together it would only be a matter of time before Marius put a ring on it.

Barely six months ago that news would have destroyed Eponine, but when Cosette showed up at her door waving her newly adorned left hand she didn't feel anything. Of course she was happy for Cosette, who was practically bursting with joy, but that feeling of envy that used to almost paralyze her was long gone.

Even sitting at her kitchen table whilst Cosette described every little detail of the moment Marius finally got down on one knee had no affect of her. Eponine couldn't help but find it almost amusing to think that it wasn't that long ago that even the thought of Cosette and Marius getting married would have made her want to throw herself into the Seine.

After gushing over her ring and Marius's typically over the top, overtly romantic proposal, Cosette finally got round to the nitty gritty of wedding planning.

"The thing is," she said, "Marius's grandfather wants us to hold the wedding at his house, and he's getting the house renovated starting in the summer, and well, you've been there, you've seen the size of that place."

Eponine nodded. Up until Marius's 21st birthday no-one really had any idea exactly how rich his family was, until they all found themselves invited to a party that his grandfather held for him at his home just outside the city. When they had arrived at the house Eponine had been pretty convinced that they had taken a wrong turn somewhere along they way and had actually ended up at Versailles; but it turned out they were in fact at right place and it was just that Marius's grandfather lived in the biggest house she had ever seen with her own eyes.

"Anyway, he doesn't want us waiting around indefinitely until the work is done so we're having the wedding in May." Cosette said, winching slightly. "And it's just I know that you're due in May and so I don't want you to think that I'm trying to steal your thunder or anything."

Eponine smiled. Only Cosette would apologize for setting a wedding date that may be inconsiderate to others. "Cosette, it's your wedding. It's your day, it should be when you want it to be, you shouldn't be worrying about me."

"But there's more..."

"Sounds dubious." Eponine said, absent-mindedly rubbing her stomach.

"Well, I was wondering if you would be my maid of honor?" Cosette said. "You're my best friend Eponine and I really couldn't have gotten through the past few years without you." she smiled. "Besides, it really is thanks to you that Marius and I even met in the first place, so it just seems right that you should be up there with us."

Eponine wasn't expecting that. She felt a sudden pang of guilt run through her for all the times she had been nice to Cosette's face whilst quietly hating her for 'stealing' Marius from right under her nose.

"Now Cosette, are you sure you've thought this through?" Eponine replied. "I'll be ready to drop in May, I will literally be walking about with a full grown human just hanging out inside of me. I will be the size of a small island nation."

"Eponine," Cosette laughed, "don't be stupid, you'll be beautiful. You already look beautiful, you've got that pregnant woman glow going on and everything."

"I think that's just the light sheen of sweat that I'm basically covered in all the time now because this baby has ruined my ability to control my own body temperature, but if you want to call it a glow that's fine with me."

"So, will you do it?"

"Of course I'll do it Cosette, I would be honored," Eponine smiled. "Excuse the pun."

"Oh, I'm so glad you said yes!" Cosette exclaimed, throwing her arms round Eponine. "I was a bit worried there that you were going to say no."

"Well, we'll just see how happy you are when my big ass ruins all your photos," Eponine said, laughing.

"You know" Cosette said, releasing Eponine from the hug, "being my maid of honor will probably be good practice."

"For what?" Eponine said, getting up to refill the pair's long empty coffee cups.

"For when you and Enjolras get married."

"We're not getting married," Eponine said, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah not yet, but you two will totally be next," Cosette smirked.

"You are just as bad as R, he's so obsessed I think he is actually planning our wedding in his spare time."

"Well we can't both be wrong."

"I don't really think Enjolras is the marrying kind," Eponine said, sitting back down at the table.

"No-one thought Enjolras was the live-in girlfriend, falling in love, having a baby kind either, so as it stands I would put good money on him being the marrying kind."

"Well, I don't know if I'm the marrying kind."

"You really don't want to get married?"

Eponine shrugged. "I've just never really thought about it."

"Like not even when you were little?"

Eponine shook her head. "No, I mean I never ran around with a pillow case on my head or anything, it just never crossed my mind."

"Are you serious?" Cosette said, looking genuinely shocked.

"I've just never really thought that far ahead." Eponine replied. "Getting married is what nice, normal people do and I've never really felt like a nice, normal person, so I guess I just figured it just wouldn't happen for me."

"And you still think that now?" Cosette asked. "You're honestly telling me that the thought of you and Enjolras getting married has never once crossed your mind?"

Even during Eponine's infatuation with Marius the fantasy never went any further than just being with him, she never thought about marrying him or actually being his wife. Had she thought about actually marrying Enjolras? No. Was she thinking about it now? Yes.

"This is the first healthy relationship I've ever been in," she replied, "and I'm already knocked up so I think if anything we need to cross that bridge first, don't you?"

"But what if he asked?" Cosette said. "What if Enjolras walked in here right now, got down on one knee and asked you to marry him, what would you say?"

"Cosette, this is a redundant conversation," Eponine said, trying to brush the topic off. "Besides, we shouldn't be taking about my hypothetical non-engagement, when you have just gotten engaged for real."

That was all that was needed to set Cosette off again; she quickly dropped the idea of Eponine and Enjolras's fictional wedding and started talking a mile a minute about trying to track down a dress she had seen a magazine months ago.

By the time Cosette left over an hour later Eponine already felt like she needed to go to some kind of wedding rehab. But she couldn't get Cosette's earlier question out of her head, and what alarmed her more was not that she was still thinking about it, but the fact that she knew that if Enjolras walked in right now and asked her to marry him she wouldn't even hesitate before saying yes.

* * *

"Apparently the baby is the size of a small gerbil now."

Eponine looked over at Enjolras laying beside her. He looked totally engrossed in the baby book he had been reading for the past forty-five minutes.

"I'm sorry, did you just compare your unborn child to a small rodent?"

"I'm just relaying what it says in the book."

"Well then, I don't think I like that book," Eponine said, reaching over and grabbing the book from his hands before throwing it across the room.

"Hey!" Enjolras said, feigning annoyance, "I was reading that."

"Don't care," Eponine said, rolling onto her side so she could tuck her body into his.

"I was thinking that maybe we should make a start on getting the baby's room organized," Enjolras said.

"Like right now?" Eponine groaned.

"No," Enjolras laughed. "At the weekend."

"Yeah," Eponine replied, "we really should get on that I suppose."

"You don't sound too excited."

"I am excited," Eponine said, "it's just when I started to look at all that stuff online there was just so much of it that I just don't even know where to start."

"Well, there was lots of helpful advice in my book." Enjolras said.

"I don't support any work that compares our child to a gerbil," Eponine said, reaching up to kiss him, "so you'll have to get a new book."


	16. chapter fifteen

The following week the baby kicked for the first time.

They were in the grocery store when it happened, in the dairy aisle. Enjolras was mulling over what yogurts he wanted when Eponine felt the first thump.

"Any time today Enjolras," she said, starting to loose patience. "It's only yogurt, it's really not that big a decision."

And then she felt it. At first she thought it was just a muscle spasm but when the second, much more obvious, thump came she knew exactly what it was.

"Which one do you want?" Enjolras said, turning round with two packets of yogurt in his hands, oblivious to what had been going on in Eponine's stomach.

"The baby just kicked."

"What?" he exclaimed, throwing both packs into their cart.

"It kicked, it definitely kicked," she said excitedly.

She grabbed Enjolras's hand and placed it at the side of her stomach where she had felt the very prominent kick a few seconds earlier.

"I don't feel anything," he said disappointedly.

"Give it a minute," Eponine replied.

She had barely even finished speaking when she felt the thump again, right where she had felt it previously.

"Shit," Enjolras said, pulling his hand away.

"Told you," Eponine said. She couldn't help but smile at the look of sheer disbelief on Enjolras's face.

"Shit," he repeated, putting his band back on her stomach just in time to feel another kick. "Does that hurt?"

She shook her head.

"What does it feel like?"

"Weird," Eponine replied. "It just feels really weird."

Enjolras leant over and kissed her, his hand still clamped to her belly. "You're amazing."

"I'm not doing anything," Eponine laughed.

"You're carrying our baby," he said. "I think that's pretty amazing."

Eponine smiled. "You are quite the charmer Mr. Enjorlas."

He kissed her again. "I try."

"Can we please leave the dairy aisle now?"

"Alright," Enjolras replied, removing his hand from her stomach so he could wrap his arm around her.

"Thank God for that," Eponine replied, digging him lightly in the ribs.

* * *

"I still can't believe Apollo didn't even bother gracing us with this presence this evening," Grantaire lamented as he and Eponine made their way up the hallway towards her apartment.

"He has a deadline to meet," Eponine replied, rummaging in her purse for her keys.

"Yeah yeah," Grantaire said, "excuses, excuses."

"I do understand you not being able to get your head around that idea R; you know because Enjolras actually works for a living, and we all know that is an alien concept to you."

"Whatever preggo," Grantaire said.

Eponine rolled her eyes. "He's very stressed, so be nice," she whispered as she opened the door.

"Now Eponine," Grantaire replied, "are you trying to imply that I wouldn't be nice?"

Eponine turned around, blocking the doorway. "You know what I mean, don't get him all annoyed for your own amusement."

Grantaire went to respond but Eponine cut him off before he even had the chance. "Promise me that you won't wind him up Grantaire."

"OK, I promise," he replied, clearly disappointed that Eponine had pulled the plug on his after dinner entertainment.

"Thank you," she said, walking into the apartment.

Grantaire followed her through to the living room, where Enjolras was sitting on the couch, typing furiously on his laptop. Grantaire was pretty sure that he hadn't even realized that they had walked in. He watched as Eponine walked over to where Enjolras sat and wrapped her arms round his shoulders.

"Hey," she said.

"Oh," Enjolras said, turning round and kissing her softly on the lips. "Sorry Ep, I was miles away."

"How are you getting on?"

"I'm getting there," he replied, "slowly but surely."

"I brought you something back, I'll go heat it up."

"Awh you didn't need to do that," he said, kissing her again.

Grantaire just watched them. He still found it a bit weird seeing them as a couple, it was hard enough trying to get his head around it when he didn't have a visual aid, but for some reason seeing them being all lovely-dovey made the whole thing seem even more surreal. Enjolras was the last person in the world he had imagined Eponine ending up with, but now when he looked back on things he couldn't believe he had missed how obviously in love with her Enjolras had been. He had always been a bit too pissed off about her unrequited love for Marius, which they had all just put down to the fact that Enjolras was basically opposed to any kind of romance or general human emotion, but with the benefit of hindsight he was clearly just annoyed because he was in love with her and she was wasting her time pining after Pontmercy. Enjolras had been the one who had suggested they throw her a surprise party after she graduated because he thought she should know how proud they were of her for making it through school when all the odds really were against her. And on her last birthday it was Enjolras who had come up with the joint present they all got her, a particular edition of some book that her father used to read to her when she was a kid: she cried when she opened it. It was all so obvious that Grantaire really did feel like an idiot for not picking up on it sooner.

Eponine suddenly slipped past him, grabbing the take out bag he was holding.

"I'm just going to heat this up," she called as she breezed out of the living room and into the kitchen.

"You should have come Enjy," Grantaire said, walking across the room and throwing himself down on the couch. "That desert you love so much is back on the menu."

"I'll come next time," Enjolras said, his eyes still glued to his computer screen. "And I've already asked you at least a dozen times to stop calling me Enjy."

"Sorry Enjy," Grantaire replied.

Enjolras sighed and continued typing, clearly not in the mood to rise to Grantaire's badgering.

"What's this?" Eponine said as she came walking back into the room, holding up a bunch of letters.

Enjolras glanced up. "Oh yeah, Cosette came by while you were at dinner and dropped off your mail from her place," he said, before returning his attention back to the computer screen.

"Right," Eponine said.

Grantaire watched as she walked back out of the room, looking lost in thought as she stared at the letter on the top of the pile. "I'm just gonna go make sure your baby mama doesn't burn your dinner," he said as he stood up.

"I'm pretty sure she can work a microwave R."

"I wouldn't be so sure Enjy," Grantaire replied. "I wouldn't be so sure."

When he got into the kitchen Eponine was standing beside the microwave, her arms crossed over her bump, just staring into space.

"You OK?"

"Yeah," she said, jumping slightly at the sound of Grantaire's voice. "Fine."

She started to fuss around, grabbing cutlery for Enjolras and straightening stuff sitting on the counter for no apparent reason. As she went to open the fridge Grantaire gently grabbed her arm.

"Ep," Grantaire said, "it's me you're talking to here."

The microwave pinged.

"One of the letters Cosette dropped off was from my father."

"What?"

"It's from my father. It's his handwriting on the envelope."

"Are you sure?"

Eponine sighed. "It's from him."

"Did you open it?"

"No." She opened the microwave and haphazardly lifted out Enjolras's burger and fries. "I know what it says."

Grantaire didn't understand. He was starting to feel like he must have missed something somewhere along the way. "How do you know what it says if you haven't opened it?"

"It'll be about the baby."

"What?" Grantaire spluttered. "How? How does he know about the baby?"

"Montparnasse."

"Montparnasse?" Grantaire exclaimed. "How the fuck does he know about the baby?"

"I saw him on the street a little while ago."

"Fucking bastard," Grantaire spat. "What did he say to you?"

"Nothing much," Eponine replied. "Just that him and my father are basically BFFs now, and how he couldn't wait to tell him I was pregnant." She shook her head. "I was hoping that he was talking shit, but why else would my father suddenly write me out of the blue?" She swallowed hard as she tried, and failed, to stop the tears from starting to fall. "I just didn't want him, or my mother, to even know about the baby. It's nothing to do with them. It's my baby and I don't want it even remotely associated with them."

"Come here," Grantaire said, pulling Eponine into him and wrapping his arms tightly around her. "It'll be OK 'Ponine."

"I'm being stupid," she said. She had never cried about her parents in front of any of her friends before. She didn't want any of them to know that after all this time they still got to her, she didn't want anyone knowing that they still had the power to upset her.

"You're not being stupid," Grantaire replied. "You're allowed to get upset 'Ponine."

"I just thought this was a totally new start," Eponine said quietly. "I thought that me and Enjolras and the baby could be our own family. That's all I wanted, I just wanted us to be a family. I wanted my own family. And I'm just scared that it's going to be ruined now, just the fact that my father knows about the baby makes everything feel tainted."

"Eponine, look at me," Grantaire said. Eponine lifted her head, leaving a mascara stained wet patch on his shirt. "You are not your parents. Your parents are assholes and you are basically the greatest person I've ever met, which I'm sure makes you the complete opposite of them. Enjolras loves you, he's crazy about you 'Ponine, and you don't need me to tell you how much he already loves that baby. You guys are already a family. Let your father write you 100 letters if he wants, it won't make any difference, and if Montpar-dickhead even thinks of starting anything I'll be more than happy to punch him in the face again."

"What if I'm a terrible parent Grantaire? Like, what if I just can't do it?"

"Eponine, you are going to be a great mom, don't let this make you doubt yourself."

"I'm just scared," she said, trying desperately to stop crying.

"You're allowed to be scared 'Ponine. Having a baby sounds really fucking terrifying, I would be shitting myself, but you and Enjolras are going to be amazing parents, I know you are. I know you can do this, and I know you're going to be amazing at it."

Enjolras's voice suddenly cut into the room. "What's wrong?"

Eponine stepped back from Grantaire's embrace, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. A look of alarm washed over Enjolras's face when he saw that she had been crying.

"What's wrong Ep?" he asked, wrapping his arm around her waist as he desperately looked at Grantaire for some kind of answer.

"Nothing," Eponine replied. "It's seriously nothing. I thought I'd over-nuked your food and I just started crying. It's all these hormones," she laughed, "they're driving me insane."

"Are you sure that's all it is?" Enjolras asked, still sounding concerned.

"Yeah," Eponine said, smiling over at Grantaire. "I'm sure."


	17. chapter sixteen

_i'm so sorry this update has taken so long! i was in california for 3 weeks and i thought i would get the chance to update whilst i was there, but time just ran away from me. i'm back home now so i'll be back to updating on a much more regular basis.  
thank you all so much for continuing to read and review this story - i hope this latest update is worth the wait!_

* * *

In the end Enjolras found the letter himself.

Not used to sharing a room with another human caused Eponine to slip up; she forgot that co-habitation meant that her drawers were Enjolras's drawers too, and so it didn't take him long to discover the crumpled page shoved in at the back of the third drawer in their shared dresser.

Initially Eponine hadn't even planned on opening the thing; she had all the best intentions of throwing it in the trash and never letting it cross her mind again. But curiosity had gotten the better of her. She hadn't heard from her father in what felt like a lifetime, and she knew there was a part of her that, despite everything, did want to know what he had to say.

Her father never did have a way with words, and his hastily-written letter was no exception. It was blunt and to the point, which was really nothing more than she should have expected. All he had to say was that he had heard she was pregnant and that he wanted to meet his grandchild when it was born. No apology, not even an acknowledgment of his shitty actions; nothing.

At first Eponine had been infuriated that he even had the audacity to ask to see her baby, but the more she thought about it the more she realized that that was exactly how her father's mind worked; he had spent the best part of twenty years not giving a fuck about anyone but himself, he wasn't likely to change now.

She was in the shower when Enjolras made his discovery. When she came back into the /bedroom he was sitting on the bed with the letter in his hands.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"About what?" Eponine replied, concentrating on towel drying her hair and paying little attention to what Enjolras was holding

"About this letter from your father?" He said, holding up the mangled page.

Eponine abruptly stopped pulling the towel through her wet hair. He was so obviously pissed, and she had absolutely no idea what to say. She knew she shouldn't have kept it a secret from him, of course she knew she should have told him. Why hadn't she told him? Why hadn't she just told him that night in the kitchen?

Because she was embarrassed; embarrassed by her fucked up family, embarrassed by the messy past she was constantly running from. The truth was she couldn't help but feel that the less Enjolras was reminded that his kid was half Thénardier the better.

"Why didn't you tell me he had written to you Eponine?"

"I'm sorry," she stammered, slightly mortified that her deceit had been rumbled. "I just... I just didn't want to worry you."

"This is my baby too," Enjolras said, standing up, still grasping the letter. "If your father is writing you letters demanding to see our baby I should know. This isn't just about you anymore Eponine, this isn't something you should be keeping from me, not when he is making noise about wanting to see _our_ baby, acting as though he has some right to just to waltz into our lives and start playing happy families."

"I didn't keep it from you deliberately..."

"Well you sure as hell didn't tell me," Enjolras snapped back.

Back before she had fallen in love with him she would have told him to go fuck himself if he had snapped at her, but now she just wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole so she didn't have to deal with the look he was throwing her anymore. She had never been particularly fond of Enjolras when he was angry, he had this glare that looked like it could cut through glass, and she was far from enjoying her first experience of being on the receiving end of it.

"Did he send this here?" Enjolras asked, the thought clearly just crossing his mind. "Does he know where we live?"

"No," Eponine replied quickly. "It was with the mail Cosette brought round. He doesn't know I..." she stopped and corrected herself. "We. He doesn't know we live here."

"See that's your problem right there Eponine," Enjolras said, his tone getting harsher with every word. "It's not about us as far as you're concerned, it's about you, it's all about you."

"It's not like that at all Enjolras, now you're just talking shit."

"Well it seems a lot like that to me," he replied.

"You know what," Eponine said, throwing her wet towel onto the bed, "I really don't need this from you right now."

"Need what from me?" he said, slamming the letter down onto the nightstand.

"I don't need you having a go at me." Eponine couldn't believe that he was accusing her of not caring about their relationship, she had been more than willing to accept the blame for the whole sorry letter incident, but now he had decided to turn it into an entirely different argument. "I'm sorry about the letter OK. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about the letter, but now you're blowing this whole thing into something completely unnecessary."

"Hang on a minute Eponine, don't try to turn his round and make it my fault."

"Oh, so it's all my fault is it?" She snapped. "Of course it couldn't be your fault, God forbid anything would be your fault, I forgot that you're a flawless human being who never makes any mistakes."

Enjolras sighed. "You're actually being ridiculous now."

"I'm actually not," she retorted.

"I didn't say anything was was your fault..." Enjolras began, but Eponine cut him off before he could even really get started.

"Seriously Enjolras, for once in your life just stop fucking talking."

"Why?" He asked, the annoyance clearly evident in his voice. "Because you don't want to hear what I have to say?"

"Because I don't want to stand here and listen to you tell me why I'm shit a relationships, I know I'm shit at relationships," she said, becoming more and more agitated. "I know I'm hard to stick Enjolras, and I know that I come with a fuck load of baggage. I don't need to hear you tell me things I already know."

"Stop being so defensive Eponine, I'm not trying to have a go at you."

"Yes you are," she said, storming past him, back towards the bathroom.

"Eponine!" he called, following her out of the room.

"I really am fucking trying here Enjolras," she said, spinning round to face him, causing him to stop so quickly that he almost lost his balance. "I want to be with you, I want to make this work. I really fucking love you and I don't need you throwing shit like this back in my face."

Enjolras waited for her to continue her stampede into the bathroom, but instead she didn't move; she just stood there in front of him, staring at him, waiting for him to make his move. After a few moments he tentatively placed his hands gently on her waist, fully expecting her to push him away; but she didn't.

"Eponine," he said, his voice softening, "I don't want you hiding letters at the back of drawers, I don't want you to feel like you have to hide anything from me. I love you, and I just want to be there for you, that's all," he took a step forward, so their bodies were almost touching. "All I want is you."

"Can I ask you something?" she said, suddenly sounding completely calm.

"Eh, yeah," Enjolras replied, entirely unsure as to where she was going with this.

"If I wasn't pregnant, would we have ever been anything more than just a one night thing?"

Enjolras didn't know how to answer that question. If she wasn't pregnant they probably would have never discussed that night again, they probably would have just continued on their merry dance of ignorance; she would have continued pining after Pontmercy and he would have continued to pretend like the whole thing had meant nothing to him. If she wasn't pregnant would he ever actually have had the guts to try and make a go of things with her? No, probably not. The irony of the whole situation was that Eponine had just called herself out for being shit at relationships, when in reality there was no-one shitter at them than Enjolras. He had never really had much of a interest, sure he had had a few dalliances along the way, but he had always been too focused on school and then his career, and from what he could see relationships were just massive distractions, which turned out to be completely un-worthwhile most of the time.

And then Eponine came crashing into his world and everything changed. From the moment he met her he knew she was different; she was wild and feisty, opinionated and fiercely independent. She engulfed him like a wave, and he had been drowning in her ever since.

Looking back he couldn't pinpoint when exactly he had realized that he was in love with her, but he knew it was light years before he had ever felt his skin against hers. It had almost killed him to have to stand by and watch Montparnasse try to crush her spirit time and time again, in the same way that it had almost killed him to watch her practically throw herself at the unbelievable oblivious Marius. But what ripped him apart the most was the fact that he had never imagined himself trying to build a future with anyone until he met her. But she didn't see him like that, he had been convinced that she didn't see him like that. The first time he kissed her he had fully expected her to start laughing in his face; instead she had kissed him back and in that moment he knew that he would never want anyone else except for her.

"I..." he began to answer, but then she silenced him, reaching up and putting her finger against his mouth.

"Grantaire has this theory," she said, "that you had feelings for me before anything had even happened between us."

Enjolras was pretty sure he might punch Grantaire the next time he saw him.

"You should have told me," she said, not even giving Enjolras the chance to dispute Grantaire's theory.

"You would have told me to fuck off."

"Not necessarily," she said, smiling as she felt the tension between then begin to dissipate.

Enjolras pulled her towards him, wrapping his arms around her waist, closing the space between them.

"I really am sorry for hiding the letter," Eponine said, "it was a shitty thing to do."

"Let's just forget about it."

"That," Eponine replied, "sounds like a great plan to me."


	18. chapter seventeen

"This is the most boring party I've ever been to," Grantaire whispered.

"You'll only saying that because there's no open bar," Eponine whispered back.

"If you weren't with child you too would be pissed about the lack of open bar," he replied. "Seriously, these people have so much money they don't know what to do with it, but they can't stick a few grand behind the bar so their beloved Marius and Cosette's friends can drink to to their future happiness? Not cool."

Marius and Cosette's very elaborate engagement party had been going on for several hours. It was a reasonably fancy affair held at Cosette's father's home in the city. Apart from her own group of friends Eponine knew none of the other attendees and had found herself spending most of the evening standing in the corner with Grantaire, passing judgement on all the other party-goers.

"Do you think the wedding will have an open bar?" Grantaire asked, starting to sound like a whiney child.

"I don't know R," Eponine replied, "you'll have to ask Marius and Cosette about that one."

"I've just had a devastating thought," Grantaire dramatically announced.

"If this is more musings about the lack of free alcohol I don't think I can listen to anymore..."

"It's not, it's about you."

"Oh," Eponine said, "sounds ominous."

"Well I was just thinking about how sad it is that you have to be all tee-total whilst you're carrying Enjolras Jr, but then I realized that when you're not pregnant anymore it'll be because you'll have pushed that baby out and you'll be a mom, and you're gonna have to stay home all the time and do mom things." He sighed. "Our glory days are over Eponine, it's tragic."

"Ack R," Eponine said, resting her head on his shoulder. "Don't be sad."

"Soon it's just gonna be me and Courfeyrac left, the rest of you will all be off marrying and reproducing and we'll be the only ones hanging on, still trying to live the dream."

"It was going to happen one day," Eponine replied.

"Yeah, but I didn't think you would be jumping ship so soon," Grantaire sighed. "It's a tragedy."

"Now just you hold that very deep thought," Eponine said. "I need to take a quick bathroom break, do you think you'll be OK on your own?"

"I'm sure I'll be fine," Grantaire said, taking a sip of the same drink he had been nursing all evening. "The lack of open bar has forced me to cancel my plans to drink myself to death.

Eponine laughed as she kissed him on the cheek. She made her way out of the packed room and into the hallway. When she reached the top of the stairs she was annoyed to discover the bathroom already occupied. She knew there was bound to be more bathrooms in Jean Valjean's sprawling home, but she couldn't be bothered to start wandering around in an attempt to find one, so she just decided to stay put and occupy herself by staring out the large window across from the bathroom door.

It was then that she saw him; Enjolras sitting on one of the benches in the garden, deep in conversation with a woman Eponine had never seen before.

Despite feeling slightly stalkerish, she watched them for a few moments. The woman looked around their age: she was quite pretty and blonde and was listening intently as Enjolras spoke. He looked pretty aggravated, and Eponine was desperate to know what was being said between them.

Just then the bathroom door opened and Eponine was forced to leave her observation point.

When she made it back to the window Enjolras and the woman were gone.

* * *

Eponine waited until they had dropped off a still complaining Grantaire before she broached the subject of Enjolras and the mystery garden woman. When he had finally returned from his outdoor liaison he had been in a foul mood and had barely spoken for the rest of the evening, despite Grantaire's many attempts to taunt him into conversation.

"So are you going to tell me who your lady friend was?"

"Hmm?" Enjolras said, staring straight out onto the road ahead.

"That woman you were talking to in the garden?"

"I didn't see you in the garden."

"I wasn't in the garden, I was upstairs. I saw you through the window."

"Spying on me were you?" Enjolras said, a hint of a smirk creeping onto his face.

"I wouldn't call it spying, it was more like looking somewhere you just happened to be."

"Her name is Cecile Henry, we grew up together; our parents were, well are, friends. I haven't seen her in years." Enjolras sighed. "She was the last person I was expecting to see tonight."

"So it wasn't a joyous reunion?"

"Not exactly."

"Did she say much about your parents?" Eponine asked, not sure how far she should push the subject.

Enjolras rarely spoke of his parents, all Eponine knew was that they had fallen out several years previously. Apparently they disapproved of Enjolras's decision to stay in the city after school; they wanted him to return the family's estate in the south of the country and join his father's law firm. When he refused they cut him off, assuming he wouldn't be able to survive without their money and would have no choice but to come running back to them. But of course things hadn't worked out exactly how they had planned.

"My mother's ill apparently." Enjolras didn't flinch as he spoke, continuing to stare straight ahead out the windshield. "It's cancer, but according to Cecile they caught it early enough."

"Fuck." Eponine didn't know what to say, that was the absolute last thing she was expecting and she wasn't sure exactly how to gauge Enjolras's reaction; his face was completely emotionless. "Are you OK?" she asked softly.

"I'm fine," Enjolras replied, finally turning his head to look at her as he reached over to grab her hand.

"You don't have to put on a brave front for me," Eponine said, running her thumb along the back of his hand.

"They could have told me," Enjolras said, the anger in his voice starting to seep through. "I know things are the way they are between us, but did they really think I wouldn't want to know that my own mother had cancer? My father was probably hoping it would turn out to be more serious so he could call me up six months down the line and throw that in face too, accuse me of abandoning her when she needed me most, despite that the fact that I'm sure he's still entertaining his mistresses behind her back; cancer or no cancer."

He pulled up outside their apartment building and let go of Eponine's hand to put the car into park. She waited for him to make a move and get out but he just sat there, leant over the steering wheel, staring intently ahead into the empty street.

"Everything is going to be OK Enjolras, I mean that Cecile woman said she was OK," she said trying to sound as reassuring as possible.

"Yeah, she's fine, or at least Cecile said she was fine. She just kept saying that they had caught it early, that everything was fine because they had caught the thing early," he replied, still staring straight ahead.

"I'm sure she's totally fine babe, if they caught it early that has to be a good thing."

Enjolras sat back and began rubbing his temples in a harsh circular motion.

"If you've got a headache we should go inside," Eponine said, still entirely unsure what to do. "You should try and get some sleep, it's late."

"I need to go and see her," Enjolras suddenly announced. "I need to do something."

"Do whatever you need to, if you want to go and see her then go, I'm sure she would be so happy to see you. I'm sure they would both be so happy to see you," Eponine replied, even though she wasn't sure at all as to how Enjolras's parents would react to a surprise visit from their prodigal son.

"Will you come with me?"

"What?" Eponine said, sounding slightly more startled than she had intended.

"Will you come with me to see them?"

Eponine knew that she had to say yes, of course she had to say yes, she couldn't tell him that she wasn't going to come and support him, of course she wanted to support Enjolras; she just wasn't sure she was quite up to meeting his estranged parents. She'd never met a boyfriend's parents before, she wasn't sure how to behave in that situation in normal circumstances, never mind the circumstances she had found herself in.

"I know it's a lot to ask," Enjolras said, turning to face her. "But I really don't think I can go by myself, I just don't trust myself to try and face them alone."

"Of course," Eponine replied, shocked by the really quite desperate tone of Enjolras's voice. "Of course I'll come with you."

He leant over and took Eponine's face in his hands, kissing her gently.

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it."


End file.
